Aerithel Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) So my boyfriend and I both have characters on "The Defenestrator" server (yes, we chose it for the name), which at peak time reaches "Standard" population (a designation that is honestly meaningless to me). I've already gotten the Legacy and character names I want, and am close to hitting Level 50 on my main. For PvE solo content, I've very much enjoyed playing the game, but am starting to get concerned about what will happen when I hit end-game content. I do need to get a better computer to participate in raiding (it hits the minimum requirements, but I know I'll need better), which I'll be doing soon enough. I've never played an MMO at the start of it's "life" - indeed, I first played WoW at least three years after it first launched, and LotRO only just last year (and very quickly found it tedious). As such, I'm just not used to being on a server at its "birth," and don't know whether I'm just unnecessarily jittery about being on a lower-population server because of it. I'm used to joining an MMO when the server is already well-established. Assuming all goes well with the game (as can be expected, that is), is it just wise to wait it out on my present server and find a solid group of folks to run Flashpoints and Operations with (i.e. the population size will indeed grow)? Is it best to instead just go find a new server now and hope that I can secure the same names/Legacy (and perhaps go through the same content)? Also... have statistics been released with respect to Imperial/Republic ratios per server? Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Edited January 18, 2012 by Aerithel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyrkur Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) My advice is to reroll now. Low Population servers stay low population servers unless Developers intervene. Bioware seems to take a very "hands off" type of approach when it comes to community, and offer no support to swoop in with an invisible hand to fix social problems. No server has a queue time I believe. Queue times are the only thing that would keep a new player from rolling on a heavy populated server. New players pick their server with four criteria. 1) Population 2) East vs West 3) PvP vs PvE and finally 4) Server Name. They will sort by population first, then look for their regions servers, then find their desired game type, then finally pick a name that sounds cool. Anectdotally, my friends who got into the Early Access didn't like the queue times on the early access servers and so rerolled on a low population server. I didn't start playing for a week or so after them when they were already in their 20s and early 30s. I warned them that playing on a Low Population server was a terrible idea. I told them to just reroll on a more populated server so that they can actually find groups to do Flashpoints with and have Warzone Queues less than 10-20 minutes. They ignored me, and I rerolled on a higher populated server without them. Today, there are more people online in any zone on my server than their entire server at times. They can sit in queue for a warzone for up to 20 minutes, only to get in and have it shut down because there are not enough people. A few of them have hit level 50 and they cannot do Warzones or Operations because there are not enough level 50s. They essentially cannot play their characters right now, because there is noone else to play with. This does not get better with time. Cut to 3 months from now, sure there will be more level 50s on that server for them to play with. But people join and quit all the time. When trying to do something that requires 8-16 people, being on a low population server is the worst thing you can do. The pool of players is so small that it can take weeks or even months to find a replacement for anyone you may happen to lose to real life obligations. Even then, that new person might not be as good as the person he replaced and you may still not even be able to do the Operations you were doing. I've had this happen to me in WoW, and I refuse to let it happen again in SWTOR. That is why I told my good RL Friends that I love them, but I won't be playing with them unless they roll characters on my server of choice. Do this. You are level 50 on a low population server. The amount of things you can do is very limited because there aren't many other level 50s on your server. So, instead of logging on and wasting time for an hour+ looking for a group, just create a new character on a High Population server and start leveling it. Your level 50 on your current server will not dissapear, so if you find out later that you don't like Heavy Populated servers or that your old server went from Low to High you can always move back. This becomes exponentially more difficult the longer you spend on your low population server. Re-roll. Level up on a high level server since you can't play your main to it's full potential yet anyway. Make the decision where to play after another month. Edited January 18, 2012 by Kyrkur Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artharin Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I'd just wait. Eventually the population will settle down on all available servers. The servers with the lower populations will be merged. You probably won't have any problems after that. Sorry to hear you found LOTRO tedious, it was(still kind of is) my favorite game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerithel Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 First of all, thank you both for responding, it's very much appreciated. I'll probably hop online tonight at peak time and see what East Coast PvE servers are around Heavy population and roll a character on that. It's getting to the point of being disheartening logging on as the only Republic player on Voss - it ends up feeling like a single-player game most of the time (a good one at that) that I'm paying $15/month to play, rather than an MMO. I'd just wait. Eventually the population will settle down on all available servers. The servers with the lower populations will be merged. Actually, I thought I'd read that BioWare will specifically NOT merge servers, and doing so for business purposes. It looks bad for a company to start merging servers, as it looks as if the game itself is failing (even if they mistakenly made too many to begin with). As such, I wouldn't expect this to happen anytime soon. As a follow-up question, how, exactly, does the Legacy system work with respect to the surname? Can 2+ accounts on the same server have the same Legacy name, or is it first-come-first-served? Sorry to hear you found LOTRO tedious, it was(still kind of is) my favorite game. I loved the game, I just hated grinding all of the Deeds. As a completionist... ugh... ended up just being far, far too grindy for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artharin Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Yeah, I didn't know about the "No-Merging-of-Servers" thing. In that case I'd totally reroll somewhere else. Deeds do suck, that's why I never did them. I just bought all my virutes in the store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AwesumPossum Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) Honestly, the game is still in it's infant stages. I am currently on a high pop server (The Twin Spears) and I'm enjoying it. I am in one of the top pvp guilds on the server with a great amount of guildies at 50 willing to help you if you get ganked and camped. If there is a "mass exodus" your server may end up even more deserted. I was originally Empire but found out that the server was 4:1 (estimated Empire to Republic). I can't imagine what Republic is like on a low pop server. While there probably is a few servers where Republic out numbered Empire but from what I read on the forums, when you clear out all the trolls, ragers and generally angry people. The concensus is that wherever you go and the Republic community is much smaller. With that there's less trolls, "kids" and just annoying people lol. TL : DR : I would reroll now somewhere better then be miserable later. Plus leveling isn't all that slow and goes by quickly. Edited January 18, 2012 by AwesumPossum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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