Server population is dropping...

[Smallyoda]

I am on Jekk jekk tar, and infinite empire. Both servers are good. Both have good pops...

 

They are not all dying, subs are quite high. The "low" and "standard" pops just indicate a much higher number than they did at launch so the old heavy is the new standard.

[Strangefate]

 

Mine isn't. Most servers are not dying.

 

 

Who cares really, lets forget about all the graphs, predictions, doomsayism and delusional fanboyism for a moment... what is left, is a lot of servers with 20 peeps per planet, people unable to group up and enjoy a lot of the content properly.

 

The population may be healthy, I sure hope it is, but there's still too many servers for the current amount of players.

 

You're on one of the fuller servers ? good for you, go play, let the rest of us stuck on half empty ones be heard, we want to enjoy the game too.

 

If we HAVE to re-roll to enjoy the game, then something is clearly not going well with it.

[Destronicus]

We have almost half the servers that Wow has. Half for 10% of Wows population.

 

As an example as to what that means?

 

(This is only an example)

Say we had a subscription base of 850 000 players

Usually only 10-20% of the players are on at once so that 850k becomes 85-170k at once

 

Now there are currently 214 servers according to mmo junkies so that means 393.5-787 players per server on average

 

Not including ships there are 33 different zones so those numbers evenly spread become

12-24 players on average per zone

 

Those numbers do not take into account faction imbalance (which there is) and assumes the population is spread between all the servers (which they are not)

 

So, Does the fact that with a 850 000 player subscription base you can have as little as 393 players on a server? No but it might show that there are TOO MANY SERVERS and that makes the servers look dead not people leaving (which some probably are)

 

 

I think you got it right. There are plenty of players in total but we are all spread so thin it gives the perception that servers are empty and dying.

[Ganiccus]

The game has sold 2.2 million copies, it had 1.7 million subscribers at the same time, and no, half of those people for all likelihood are not gone. Some certainly are, but I would expect the game to have lost no more than a few hundred thousand subscribers, if even that.

 

Well, then you are truly delusional. Not one server population that I've seen has been listed as "heavy" or "full" anymore. They're all 'light' or 'standard' now. You can't possibly believe that all those 1.7 "subscribers" are actually playing the game.

 

Take me for an example. I'm currently a "subscriber" because I bought 3 months of game time (regrettably), however, I hadn't logged in for over a month prior to about 2 days ago.

 

So you can cling to those numbers as much as you like, it doesn't change the fact there are 35 people on the fleet during prime time.

[Ozymandous]

That was one of the reasons, yes. Playing on a dead/dying server is not fun. It actually sucks the fun right out of the game.

 

Wow, I am glad I missed the laser pistol pointed at my head when I played telling me I could ONLY play on one specific server...

 

Re-roll to a busier server. What else are you going to do with your time other than complain you're bored because you rushed to get there?

 

If you love the game you'd honestly not mind re-rolling. Heck, I had a level 50 on one server and rerolled to another to join friends there. Yep, exact same character class.

 

I love when people play ONE character, on ONE server, refuse to ever change, and complain because the entire game/server doesn't suit them exactly.

[Ozymandous]

Who cares really, lets forget about all the graphs, predictions, doomsayism and delusional fanboyism for a moment... what is left, is a lot of servers with 20 peeps per planet, people unable to group up and enjoy a lot of the content properly.

 

The population may be healthy, I sure hope it is, but there's still too many servers for the current amount of players.

 

You're on one of the fuller servers ? good for you, go play, let the rest of us stuck on half empty ones be heard, we want to enjoy the game too.

 

If we HAVE to re-roll to enjoy the game, then something is clearly not going well with it.

 

Well you can always pay the $20-$25 fee to transfer when they add that option if that's what you wish. I'm sure BW would love that extra cash instead of you simply taking time to re-roll instead.

[Ganiccus]

Wow, I am glad I missed the laser pistol pointed at my head when I played telling me I could ONLY play on one specific server...

 

Re-roll to a busier server. What else are you going to do with your time other than complain you're bored because you rushed to get there?

 

If you love the game you'd honestly not mind re-rolling. Heck, I had a level 50 on one server and rerolled to another to join friends there. Yep, exact same character class.

 

I love when people play ONE character, on ONE server, refuse to ever change, and complain because the entire game/server doesn't suit them exactly.

 

Not many people are eager to re-invite the tedium that is leveling in this game, I don't think. The "story" thing was sort of kinda fun once. I'm not sure anyone would want to do it again.

 

But the whole "illusion of choice and consequences" is a whole different discussion.

 

Point being: People shouldn't have to reroll. And that the game is losing subs at an increasing rate.

[Flabotomy]

I have 3 50's and why didn't your friends re-roll to your server.

[Tomokie]

I dont see this holding on long term as a subscription based MMORPG because it lacks the socialization and interaction features required by real MMORPGs and its probably to late to add them in now. At best they might get 30% of those that left to retry again. Most players, once they leave, they move on for good.

 

Well I read patch notes once in a while to see if something's changed, so I dont leave for good.

 

Maybe Bioware will add some cool PVP arena's or open PVP raiding.. like it would be in the movies.. taking over planets and stuff. Or allowing u to level alts doing Pure PvP or dungeon grinding with an LFG system like in World of Warcraft .. maybe..

 

I'm still waiting for Star Trek Online to implement Massive Borg battle's, it has been over a year now..

I don't think it will happen., but u never know.. 40 Federation vessels vs one Borg cube.. *pew pew*

Edited March 1, 2012 by Tomokie

[Rouge]

Not one server population that I've seen has been listed as "heavy" or "full" anymore. They're all 'light' or 'standard' now.

 

Claims that like that show that you are not serious, just complaining and inventing things. There are Very Heavy servers still even on normal weekdays, it's not rare but a common occurrence. During weekends we get a few Full servers.

 

It's not our problem if you can't be bothered to use the content you have paid for.

Edited March 1, 2012 by Rouge

[DarthSabreth]

I just love players who tell others they have 200 ppl at fleet at all time, but cant provide the name of their server

 

Im from Lord Adraas and at peak times we hover around 170- 200 in the fleet

[Drake_Hound]

/Who 50

If there are more 50 then last week , then population isn´t dropping .

If there are less 50 then last week , the population is dropping.

 

The 50 are what counts now , no longer the mid engine , if the casuals now hit 50 .

And every 2 quit 1 stay , you will get a bigger population .

If there is nobody staying , then you will get population reduction .

 

For a game 2 months into release , it is now /who 50 that counts .

Nothing else , even the average slow gamer who likes this game .

Would be 50 by now , cause of the story .

 

Sofar on my server in europe it is increasing .

[Rouge]

Who cares really, lets forget about all the graphs, predictions, doomsayism and delusional fanboyism for a moment... what is left, is a lot of servers with 20 peeps per planet, people unable to group up and enjoy a lot of the content properly.

 

The population may be healthy, I sure hope it is, but there's still too many servers for the current amount of players.

 

You're on one of the fuller servers ? good for you, go play, let the rest of us stuck on half empty ones be heard, we want to enjoy the game too.

 

I play on a Standard server. Higher level planets have about that 20 players at good playing times - I haven't seen more than 45 at the same time on any planet above Balmorra - and it's usually enough to do Heroics.

 

Personally, I doubt the intention for BW has been that the large planets at later game would be full of players. The game would have been designed differently in that case.

[Strangefate]

I play on a Standard server. Higher level planets have about that 20 players at good playing times - I haven't seen more than 45 at the same time on any planet above Balmorra - and it's usually enough to do Heroics.

 

Personally, I doubt the intention for BW has been that the large planets at later game would be full of players. The game would have been designed differently in that case.

 

It actually was designed differently, if there's around 100+ players per planet, it will create new shards and move the excess players into a new empty shard. They can change that number to 20 if they please to avoid full planets yet still have enough people per planet to LFG.

 

Groups/chat/LFG works across shards, so even if you're on shard 3 all by yourself, you can still group up with people from shard 1 and move into that shard... or entering an instance will put everybody together.

 

The tech is all there, just not the people.

 

You can say 20 people is enough to do heroics, and I can say that is nonsense.

if you have 3 4 player heroics, maybe you can get 1 done every 2-3 nights if you whine regularly every 10 mins for a group.

No idea how much other people play, but I do have a life and job, and compared to past MMOs I've tried, finding groups here has gotten painfull.

[cp_signal]

It actually was designed differently, if there's around 100+ players per planet, it will create new shards and move the excess players into a new empty shard. They can change that number to 20 if they please to avoid full planets yet still have enough people per planet to LFG.

 

Groups/chat/LFG works across shards, so even if you're on shard 3 all by yourself, you can still group up with people from shard 1 and move into that shard... or entering an instance will put everybody together.

 

The tech is all there, just not the people.

 

You can say 20 people is enough to do heroics, and I can say that is nonsense.

if you have 3 4 player heroics, maybe you can get 1 done every 2-3 nights if you whine regularly every 10 mins for a group.

No idea how much other people play, but I do have a life and job, and compared to past MMOs I've tried, finding groups here has gotten painfull.

 

I also agree, I've found it very hard to find people for flashpoints. Server merge is needed at this point.

Edited March 1, 2012 by cp_signal

[Rouge]

You can say 20 people is enough to do heroics, and I can say that is nonsense.

 

It's quite enough. Couple of days ago we did a 4H in Hoth with 3+1. 9-13 people on the planet the time we put together the group.

[Scorpid]

I'm from the server Kellers Void, Republic side. The server seems to be getting empty, my alt imp server Dark Raper seems to always be full with over 200+ on the fleet all day long.

[MarkMoore]

It's quite enough. Couple of days ago we did a 4H in Hoth with 3+1. 9-13 people on the planet the time we put together the group.

 

Your obviously not a "big picture" person. So you got lucky and managed to get a 4 person group together out of 13 people. Most of the time that wont happen.

Please post a screenshot of your login screen showing "most" servers at high or standard. Must assume you are not EU, because have not seen anything above Standard in over a month, and when I did was only 1 or 2. Here is my screenshot (please back you claims up in a similar manner)

http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j289/edwar368/?action=view&current=SWTOREUserverlist.jpg

 

With regards to reroll, its taken 2 and half months for me to get to 38 where I am now. Why should I have to reroll? Free Character transfer or server merges are the only options that I would deem acceptable

[EpikWang]

i not sure i understand do you all think that 200 for one side on a server is a lot? because i dont think so

[Goretzu]

It actually was designed differently, if there's around 100+ players per planet, it will create new shards and move the excess players into a new empty shard. They can change that number to 20 if they please to avoid full planets yet still have enough people per planet to LFG.

 

Groups/chat/LFG works across shards, so even if you're on shard 3 all by yourself, you can still group up with people from shard 1 and move into that shard... or entering an instance will put everybody together.

 

The tech is all there, just not the people.

 

You can say 20 people is enough to do heroics, and I can say that is nonsense.

if you have 3 4 player heroics, maybe you can get 1 done every 2-3 nights if you whine regularly every 10 mins for a group.

No idea how much other people play, but I do have a life and job, and compared to past MMOs I've tried, finding groups here has gotten painfull.

 

 

 

I'm still a bit puzzled as to why they didn;t have larger servers and more shards.

[DucatiRider]

The real problem is that Bioware "leaves" us writing and writing and writing... but they don't move a finger.

 

They don't really know that PLAYERS to play with or versus are the MINIMUM REQUIREMENT of any mmo... they should merge servers NOW and not in a month, what the hell are they waiting for?

[zonkwalker]

Basilisk Droid is also dying, at 11 pm there were 20 ppl on Ilum! If I won't be able to move my char or servers won't be merged in two weeks it's going to be my last days of SWTOR.

[Fezzhan]

im on a heavy\standard EU server (normally one of the most ppltd) Rep side

I have to say that the Fleet is always crowded and normally the Planets (im onAlderaan now) are fit with 35\55 ppl. Is simple to find mates for 4 man heroic near the main bases\houses.. for the fartest (f.e. red hand quest) is almost impossible.

Happened that i was inside a cavern or on the other side of the planet readin someone ask for a group\quest i had, but i ignored the call it.

Why? because after the teleport and the heroic quest i have to kill again 100000 mobs to reach a pc or a king or a goat on the other side of the planet. Lazyness? maybe, but in some cases this could be the reason why is diff to find ppl for the heroics

[MarkMoore]

im on a heavy\standard EU server (normally one of the most ppltd) Rep side

.....

 

Is your server name a secret or can you share it?

[leftwich]

Here's something that no one's considered at all...that I'm aware of being that I only read the first 2 pages...

 

1. PST server populations are going to drop as soon as all the APAC players get their transfers.

 

2. Population balance between Imp and Repub is totally jacked, most servers favoring Imp to varying degrees.

 

3. Prime time is between ~ 4pm and 10pm

 

4. Merging servers will only create a larger divide between republic and imperial numbers.

 

5. Numbers = economy = players. No one stays on a server where the GTN is totally garbage.

 

Now what to do about these points...

 

In order....

1. We merge servers. Plain and simple. There's not a lot to be done about it.

 

2. Offer free transfers for Republic players to selected servers for a short amount of time. Obviously from the lowest republic population to the highest republic population until the balance is ~ 1-1.

2a. An additional server merge would need to happen to distribute the rest of the population across servers to close as many low pop servers as possible.

 

3. We need less BOP drops from dungeons and more items to put on the GTN besides random greens that drop from whatever, and crafted purples. I've taken a glance at a few servers to see a totally dead GTN, mostly republic side for just about anything. Having a decent market that can sustain players keeps players.

 

4. Open up a paid transfer service so people can jump ship and move to a different server if they chose.

 

End state---- More populated servers, better faction balance, faster queues, more Flashpoints, more raiding.

 

I know it's not as easy as all that because there are numbers to crunch and figures and coding and whatever else people want to throw in there, but something to the effect above needs to happen or people will end up leaving.