Server population is dropping...

[Touchbass]

Just using the limited activity tags of LIGHT to FULL.....

 

As recently as this last Friday, and Saturday, prime time:

 

FACT: the number of LIGHT servers at prime time US is declining. For the past month or more there were over two dozen. This week less then 12.

 

FACT: we are once again seeing FULL servers at prime time, and more VERY HEAVY and HEAVY as well.

 

There is only a few hour window where the servers look somewhat healthy. My point is not the game is dying but there are too many servers. At 6pm last night EST there where 4 very heavers and the rest where light and standard. At 1am EST when I was able to check it again it looked something similar.

[Andryah]

There is only a few hour window where the servers look somewhat healthy.

 

If by the entire 5 hours evening window of prime time play, correct. A fact that is true of every MMO actually, because only a fraction of the population plays 7/24. ~50% of any given MMO server population plays only at prime time.

 

But, what is your point? You expect people to gank the servers 7/24. People have lives outisde of the game. And if you play off of prime time for your server, that is nobodies issue really except your own.

 

That aside, Other then about 2 dozen NA servers that have been perpetually light for mos days since launch, the rest of the severs are running Standard for about 16 hours a day.

[Maltra]

As a player from the server Senator Constipex, I can clearly say that our server is a DEAD server. At peak hours the imperial fleet population maxes at 30. Yes 30, this is horrific, there is no opportunity to group with other players or do warzones. The wait for warzones are half an hour and when we finally go in it gets closed due to lack of players. Hopefully Bioware will find a solution Very soon.

 

But i bet that's an AWESOME 30 people community! You don't need cross server warzones/dungeon tool to ruin it man. /sarcasm

[Touchbass]

If by the entire 5 hours evening window of prime time play, correct. A fact that is true of every MMO actually, because only a fraction of the population plays 7/24. ~50% of any given MMO server population plays only at prime time.

 

But, what is your point? You expect people to gank the servers 7/24. People have lives outisde of the game. And if you play off of prime time for your server, that is nobodies issue really except your own.

 

That aside, Other then about 2 dozen NA servers that have been perpetually light for mos days since launch, the rest of the severs are running Standard for about 16 hours a day.

 

There are too many servers?

[Andryah]

At 6pm last night EST there where 4 very heavers and the rest where light and standard. At 1am EST when I was able to check it again it looked something similar.

 

Interesting that you picked two time slots that bracket just outside of prime time.

 

AND if you had checked in the middle of your time brackets (which bracket prime time) you would have found more then a dozen servers above STANDARD.

 

My point is that even with the limited metric points we have, it is clear that many servers are more populated at prime time in NA then they were several weeks ago. Which contradicts the title of this thread.

[Balrizangor]

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

 

Mask of Nihilius, we don't support 200+ (except Fri/Sats) but we do hit 140-170+ depending on time of day ...

 

 

Hope this helps you ...

[Andryah]

There are too many servers?

 

Since the trend shows upward, and nobody except Bioware knows the details of the trend data, your point is subjective at best. Especially given that we now seeing the occasional full server with a wait time again.

[Kurfer]

My server is practically dead, we don't even have trolls anymore in Imperial Fleet, it's not even breaking 90 people anymore and the GTN is all but useless here.

 

I check 0wnedcore every day for private server emulators; that's all this game needs. Wouldn't mind checking out every single class story at a much quicker pace before I uninstall the game and put it on the shelf next to the warhammer game that didn't make it out of the shrink wrap before they started shutting down the servers.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Kurfer

[wyvernmonarch]

i support the merging of servers

 

i also support free server transfers (this would be effectively similar to a merge as it would end up creating dead servers anyhow)

[Strangefate]

I took screenshots of prime time last (saturday) night, there was 1 Full server, 1 very heavy, 7 heavy servers and 18 light servers.

The rest were all Standard

 

 

Personally I don't think those are great results for prime time, that said, everytime somebody points to the Torstatus website showing the population decline there, some people start saying that those numbers are crap, as Bioware can adjust the caps anytime, giving the impression that there's a decline, when instead the cap might have been risen.

 

Sadly, this is all speculation beyond Bio saying once that they would raise the cap, and the opposite action can also be speculated, there's nothing stopping them from lowering the caps so the servers appear fuller.

 

So really, server population displays and Torstatus may tell us nothing, but what does tell us something, is the empty servers we play on.

If you're on 1 of the few full servers, good for you, enjoy the game, but just because your home isn't on fire, doesn't mean that there can't be a forest fire going on around it.

 

A lot of people like myself suffer from too empty servers, I already rerolled once from a light server to a heavy server... and now this server never reaches heavy anymore during prime time even, hasn't for weeks.

 

Saying that 20 people per planet is great and enough is nonsense, yes, every 3 days you can find people to do a heroic... how great and massive.

The game works with shards, if there's too many people on 1 planet, it will move the excess players to a new shard. They can have 200 people on the same planet to group up with in shards of 50 people so that noone has their quest kills stolen etc, and that is how a healthy server should look like.

 

I don't think most of the people here are saying that the game is doomed or anything, we wouldn't be worried and paying if we wished the game ill.

 

To me it is clear that there's waaaay too many servers for the current population and there's no excuse to either consolidate these or make server transfers a higher priority.

 

 

Again, just because you're not experiencing an issue, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Strangefate

[Touchbass]

Since the trend shows upward, and nobody except Bioware knows the details of the trend data, your point is subjective at best. Especially given that we now seeing the occasional full server with a wait time again.

 

I honestly hope this trend continues then

[Touchbass]

Interesting that you picked two time slots that bracket just outside of prime time.

 

AND if you had checked in the middle of your time brackets (which bracket prime time) you would have found more then a dozen servers above STANDARD.

 

My point is that even with the limited metric points we have, it is clear that many servers are more populated at prime time in NA then they were several weeks ago. Which contradicts the title of this thread.

 

I picked those times because I had no choice due to work, not because I have devilish intentions to fabricate information, that is why I listed the times and dates so people can verify if I'm blowing smoke or not. I said population would probably have gone up during that window but alias I wasn't online due to work so i didn't want to just make up numbers.

 

My point is the servers can appear healthy during prime but outside of that pocket it's trouble for a chunk of the servers to get things going in an MMORPG setting.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Touchbass

[BlackZoback]

Darth Sion : 5:21pm EST showing a "standard" population, note that this is a west coast server and is one of the top in server imbalances at about 2:1

 

Imperial side:

1-10 : 58

10-15 : 81

16-20 : 68

21-25 : 64

26-30 : 72

31-35 : 61

36-40 : 81

41-49 : 81

50 : 100+

 

Fleet: 83

 

Republic:

1-10 : 47

11-20 : 85

21-30 : 79

31-40 : 64

41-49 : 59

50 : 58

 

Fleet: 49

[Beachcomberb]

Dude, server being "Standard" HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE NUMBER OF 50S LOGGED IN.

 

It's based on total population playing at the moment. That would be all levels, all zones, both factions.

 

If you think the population is (or should be) all 50s on any server this early into the life of the game, you need to do a reality check.

 

Yeesh

 

Well FYI "this early into the life of the game" , tons of people have hit a content wall and have no more to achieve.

 

For the long term sustainability of the server of course i am talking about lvl 50 numbers.

 

Yeesh (whaterver the hell that means).

[Harleyz]

I just love the players that look at fleet numbers and determine that's the server size.

 

Pro tip: Most people don't hang out at the fleet, they're out doing dailies, Illum, and Datacrons.

 

Another Pro tip: the numbers you see are only your faction.

 

Pro tip: its not you.

[Jxspyder]

Yes I can. Don't put words in my mouth, I am not saying its massive declining but i am saying with 100% certainty that the game isn't growing. Bioware would of announced the 2 million sub milestone, especially with a asian launch. These are facts, sorry if it's not comforting.

 

You're right. You can say that. What matters though, is the relevance to your statement. Currently, your statement has zero relevance, because it's backed by.....nothing.

 

You should look up the definition of "fact", since you're using it wrong at this moment.

 

 

There are more light servers then there are very heavy servers. Facts. Stop being a biodrone.

 

Which has nothing to do with his statement that the majority of servers are standard or above. Facts. Stop digging yourself a deeper hole, and admit you were wrong. You're making yourself look stupid.

 

Another fact. There are more heavy servers than there are light at this moment.

 

 

Alright I'm done. Believe what you want but it does not change reality. Servers need to be merged so the game can get back on course. If you don't believe my notion of it then I don't know what to tell you. I'm done with the game till these things are fixed, I hope for your sakes that Bioware addressed these issues. This is suppose to be a win/win conversation but Biodrones defend to the bitter end that there are no serious problems ... just like AoC and WAR.

 

The problem is that you haven't presented reality. Reality constitutes facts. You've presented made up assumptions based on your opinion, and the fact that Bioware isn't releasing press announcements weekly.

 

Funnily enough, none of the people who are calling out your bs have ever denied that there is a problem with some of the servers. Most of them have even pointed out where Bioware has announced that they're working on character transfers.

[Jxspyder]

I took screenshots of prime time last (saturday) night, there was 1 Full server, 1 very heavy, 7 heavy servers and 18 light servers.

The rest were all Standard.

 

Conversely, right now there are only 10 light servers, 13 heavy servers, 2 very heavy, 1 full, and the rest standard. That would be a significant difference

 

Last night, if I remember correctly, there were 4 light servers. So while your single server may be a ghost town, it's not true for the game as a whole. We may see a couple of mergers, taking the handful of servers that have been consistantly light and merging them in with standard servers, but I doubt you'll see much more than that. Beyond the transfer ability we've already been told is being worked on.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Jxspyder

[TGreasy]

Hmmm Tott Doneeta is super empty, same 15-20 ppl in WZs everyday if we get a que.

[Icebaron]

People certainly like to delude themselves. The lack of proof doesn't mean something is false.

 

But keep kidding yourselves, it's funny to watch.

[MrOrionQuest]

That is actually incorrect. The basic principles of both Law and Science require consistent proof be made available before either are considered fact, truth or Law (in Science's case). In both fields, the burden of proof is also laid with either the accuser or the person bringing up the theory. A Law of Science isn't even considered if there is any possible way the Law can't be applied to any/every facet. For instance, the Theory of Relativity is now the Law of Relativity, despite it being in the theory state for decades.

[Icebaron]

That is actually incorrect. The basic principles of both Law and Science require consistent proof be made available before either are considered fact, truth or Law (in Science's case). In both fields, the burden of proof is also laid with either the accuser or the person bringing up the theory. A Law of Science isn't even considered if there is any possible way the Law can't be applied to any/every facet. For instance, the Theory of Relativity is now the Law of Relativity, despite it being in the theory state for decades.

 

Fine and dandy for a courtroom or science journal, but a fact is fact long before it is ever proven to be a fact. Those rules are just there to help us discover what already exists.

[Urdnaxela]

Fine and dandy for a courtroom or science journal, but a fact is fact long before it is ever proven to be a fact. Those rules are just there to help us discover what already exists.

 

no, those rules are set there to set apart intelligent people from dilettantes.

 

i can't really say that it's a fact that lightning is when Thor is upset and shouts simply because i have no proof, even if people would find it really hard to disprove such a claim. and it would be plain stupid to say that this holds out to be true 'till it's proven, or, to use your logic, 'till we discover that it's true.

 

back on topic:

while i do agree that there is a decline in the overall population i certainly can't say that this is a fact, for there are no official (or non-official) "numbers" that i know of. for now it's merely a hunch, a guess, an opinion - nothing more.

 

P.S. by the way, a result with (at least) some statistical significance is not so easy to obtain, even Bioware has proven that it has few to no real statistics professionals... using a holiday period as reference to determine peak and off-peak periods.

[VidarUlv]

That is actually incorrect. The basic principles of both Law and Science require consistent proof be made available before either are considered fact, truth or Law (in Science's case). In both fields, the burden of proof is also laid with either the accuser or the person bringing up the theory. A Law of Science isn't even considered if there is any possible way the Law can't be applied to any/every facet. For instance, the Theory of Relativity is now the Law of Relativity, despite it being in the theory state for decades.

 

This is kinda off-topic by a few parsecs but it's still the Theory of Relativity, not the Law of Relativity. A theory summarizes hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. Scientific laws explain things but they do not describe them. The law of gravity predicts how an object will behave once dropped, but it will not explain it.

 

You make an observation, you test it and you find a reliable pattern. You make a hypothesis which is peer reviewed and if is is not disproved by further testing and experimenting and it provides reliable results it might get acknowledged as a theory.

[corbanite]

is loads of people standing around in fleet a good thing?

 

On the one hand you want loads of people in fleet so you can do your flash point but.. loads of people all stood around fleet doing nothing is just a sign of many people bored.

 

On our server the population in fleet is down but the population on most other planets has risen by almost double since I levelled through the initial rush.

 

I guess we will find out today during the guild meeting what the actual state of play is.

 

I'm not even sure population is dropping.. maybe activity is dropping or maybe activity is being spread to other parts of the game and so is less visible.

 

I can only speak for my server and my experiences.

 

A LFG tool on our server I think would be a good thing. I think the changes coming in 1.2 aiming to bring more activity to lvl 50's is also a good thing.

Edited March 5, 2012 by corbanite

[BlackZoback]

I have insomnia and doing pointless math helps me sleep so here it goes:

 

Most of the naysayer believe that the population is closer to 850k then the 1.7million number that was given to us on feb 1st.

 

Peak server pop is usually around 10-20%(I used 15% even thought its probably closer to 10% due to the impending 1.2 patch) of the total population, and there are currently 220 servers.

 

With 850k people playing peak time there would be about 580 people per server, that's well into the "light" category for all the servers. Those of us with eyes in our head can see this is not the case, as there are only a handful of "light" servers during peak times.

 

Not looking very believable.....

 

So, lets plug in some numbers that lean towards the notion that population is growing like say 2 million:

 

That works out to about 1363 people per server, which puts most of them "standard" category with the rest being "heavy" and "light" with a couple at "very heavy". Those of us with eyes in our heads can see that this is usually the case at peak times.

 

"Light" is based of an informal /who 1-50 population survey of the most populated "light" server I could find and it had 618 people on it.

 

"Standard" is based off the same method for finding the "light" number, found one server with 1038 people and another with 1385 people, both in the "standard" category.

 

Feel free to disprove me, but use numbers and not speculation.

Edited March 5, 2012 by BlackZoback