My server's population went from heavy to light within one month..

[Baaddare]

 

Obviously the lack of dual spec significantly limits what you can do with a single character.

 

actually it does not. You have different companions to use in different situations so that the two of you make the right combo for a particular fight. Have only 3 people for a FP bring out the right companion ( does not work for the first part of wargames but does for most other FP)

[Baaddare]

If this was the case, then where is the article saying that the server caps have been increasing? If this was the case then wouldn't Bioware's team that runs articles get on this so they can paint the game in even better light? Don't get me wrong, i'd love if that was the case, I just have yet to see any proof.

 

actually they did say they were raising caps quite a few times

[Baaddare]

Its easy to see many sites that monitor server usage show that USAGE has drop on all servers. So to say they just up the limit is BS. I am sorry but the facts are in many people did not renew their subs for this billing cycle which took place today. Those that didn't stop playing a while back. BW needs to allow server transfers NOW not later or they will lose more people. For those that do not believe the number of people have gone down just wait give it a week. You will see BW post news about having free server transfers in the works and will have it out by middle of March (since i have a source that says they were already working on it thinking popluations would be crazy on some servers) and then by April we will see them close down a few servers. When that happens this game is all but on life support and needs some serious fixing to get people to come back.

 

funny that the sites i look at shows a pretty steady pop for the past 30 days

[Vyruzvetrix]

On the weekend on my server there's around 170 odd people in the fleet.... yet, you still cant find a group for anything.

 

I see people on their speeder bikes doing laps of the fleet, or spinning round in circles for no apparent reason other than extremely mild entertainment.

 

The most fun i've had in recent days is standing over the barrier in the fleet, inviting random people and gripping them to their deaths.

 

It's a shame really, I want to play this game.... But who wants to do a heroic instance when there is absolutely no incentive. Do two EV's and you're almost (if not) in full Coumni / half Rakata.

 

Gone are the days of weeks worth of raiding just to get a piece of gear or two (and we all know these were the good times, vanilla MC etc, when seeing someone in full BLUES was impressive)... But that's because of the player base. Everyone wants everything to be given to them with minimal effort, and get annoyed when things take "too long". Well this is the result. A game where everyone has everything, and no one wants to play any more.

[Sirsri]

actually it does not. You have different companions to use in different situations so that the two of you make the right combo for a particular fight. Have only 3 people for a FP bring out the right companion ( does not work for the first part of wargames but does for most other FP)

 

having a companion in lieu of a properly specced player lets you do things badly.

 

If you want to PVP and you aren't PVP specced, you are at a significant disadvantage against people who do. If you want to do a hard mode instance (and all but one of my companions are in full 126 gear or better, one of them is in almost full rakata somehow) you can, but you're making life hard on yourself and you're excluding a human being because they don't have the right spec right now.

 

I wouldn't recommend trying the last boss on hard mode boarding party, or either of false emp or battle for ilum with a companion tank or healer. Even HK 47 (on any difficulty) is a nuisance with companions because they like to stand in things and find ways to die.

 

Oh and if I logged on to do a 4 man, and a group had to say 'sorry, we need to take a companion rather than you to this FP because you don't have dual spec' I probably wouldn't be too keen to keep showing up.

 

None of these are huge problems when you're leveling. But when you're getting into PVP matches which are 5 battlemaster + others vs 5 battlemasters + others being that guy on the team that isn't PVP speced is a path to causing failure.

[Azumio]

Eastern servers in general are less populated then their Western counterparts.

 

That said, you can't really do anything.

 

I'm in the same boat, only slightly better.

 

I joined Port Nowhere when it was Very Heavy/Heavy constantly. Now it's standard at peak, but Light 70% of the time. It feels dead on a lot of planets, but no where near as bad as some.

 

One of the reasons I unsubbed, really.

[Vikassi]

Have you ever considered that it went from heavy to light because the raised the population caps twice?

 

Servers like mine that were listed as full have just as many if not more people then they had at launch the server just can handle the population better.

 

 

Yes the Doomcryers will tell you it's "Mass exodus!!!111eleven!eatatjoes" but the guys who actually run the game say it's the server cap increase and they would know.

 

in b4 /tinfoilhat

 

If there was only 2 people on Ilum, i highly doubt server cap increase was the issue here....does anyone read the original post anymore or do they just feel the need to qq without consequence?

[FourTwent]

I play Imperial on the server Rwookrorro. I was one of those people who, during early access followed the developer's and community manager's advice to alleviate full servers and re-roll on one of the new ones. I and my few friends left our characters and started over on this new Server. Rwookrorro filled up fast and we started our own guild and had a blast leveling up and interacting with players, meeting new friends, etc..

 

Over the last few weeks I have noticed that there are less and less people online during peak hours. Rwookrorro is an eastern server and we peak around 8 and 9 pm. Over the weekend I hadn't noticed more then 45 people on the fleet. People from my guild have not signed as much too. People that were playing 3 or 4 times a week now play once or twice.

 

Then last night, I logged on to do my hard mode pvp dailes. I queued up for pvp while flying to Ilum to kill Reps. There was 2 people on Ilum, me and another Imperial. So driving around central picking up 30 armaments I realized that my queue never popped. That was strange because it was 8:30 PM and usually I only have to wait 5-10 mins, if that.

 

I went back to the fleet to do my hard mode daily. I am a tank, by necessity. Its by far the shortest role on our server. I don't mind it, and I'm pretty good at it, although respecing every day kinda sucks but that should be taken care of 1.2 So I ask a healer from my guild and he agrees to go immediately. Nice! Then I spam General LF2M DPS Any Hard Mode. After several minutes of no replies, I started to politely ask random 50s on the fleet. I got 1 DPS from that but I spend another 20 minutes looking for one more and I couldnt find it.

 

This was sorely disappointing, not in a QQ kinda way, but all I wanted to do was play the game and I couldn't because my server is dying/dead. I sat there contemplating what to do next when I realized my pvp queue still hadnt popped! I disbanded the "group", logged off and watched TV for the rest of the night.

 

i just wanted to share my story and see if anyone else is running into the same problems? I really enjoy this game but at 50 there really are only two things to do. PvP and flashpoints/ops. Both of which I enjoy doing, but now if this continues I wont even have that. What to do? Reroll again? I really really dont want to do that being I've put a months worth of work into this characters endgame equipment. Bioware has not stated if and more importantly when they will implement server transfers or at least some way to combat the lack of population.

 

TL'DR Bioware please release some sort of information about how to increase populations on light servers. Not being able to do Flashpoints or Warzones is NOT fun.

 

cool story

[Ansultares]

The OP's server at offpeak times shows a steady pop around 500 off peak and 2k at peak times.

Where are you getting these numbers? Just curious, because fanboys actively shoot down every 3rd party population tracker, including some which I've seen to be accurate in previous releases.

 

People need to understand that they raises lvl caps so that servers that were showing as very heavy are now showing as standard and so forth.

You realize they could as easily lower caps to simulate "full" servers. Increasing overall population cap is all well and good, and something I fully support, but at the same time they could lower the threshold for light->standard, and suddenly there are no light population servers at all, but that doesn't mean there was a sudden influx of players.

 

Just saying, take everything with some amount of skepticism. EA's well known for playing dirty.

[Red_Vs_Blue]

Have you ever considered that it went from heavy to light because the raised the population caps twice?

 

Servers like mine that were listed as full have just as many if not more people then they had at launch the server just can handle the population better.

 

 

Yes the Doomcryers will tell you it's "Mass exodus!!!111eleven!eatatjoes" but the guys who actually run the game say it's the server cap increase and they would know.

 

in b4 /tinfoilhat

 

He did say that it was very hard for him to find a group and his pvp queue did not pop up. raised server cap or not, everything should have been easier to find. and it wont make a heavy/full server drop to low. Please be logical.

[Andryah]

He did say that it was very hard for him to find a group and his pvp queue did not pop up.

 

In reality, this could be much more about the demographics and play style of the people on that server.

 

I play on a generally light, a generally standard, and a generally heavy-very_heavy server. In general, I see the number of people in any given location (ie: planet) scales to the light/standard/heavy tags on the servers. That said, It remains just about as easy to do a 4 person heroic on the light server as it is on the heavy server. My characters are generally where the center of the bell curve distribution of levels are and I think that is why. It's not the raw poplation, it's what planets they are playing on.

 

The only real difference on my three servers is the end game content, and I think the people most often vocally butthurt about server popuplations are people who have been 50 for a while now (like the guy I responded to above) and the 50s don't log on as much as they used to. They log on to do end game content and then they log on some different character to do something different (maybe on the same server, maybe a different server, maybe the same faction, maybe a different faction).

Edited February 20, 2012 by Andryah

[Ashane]

Where are you getting these numbers? Just curious, because fanboys actively shoot down every 3rd party population tracker, including some which I've seen to be accurate in previous releases.

 

You realize they could as easily lower caps to simulate "full" servers. Increasing overall population cap is all well and good, and something I fully support, but at the same time they could lower the threshold for light->standard, and suddenly there are no light population servers at all, but that doesn't mean there was a sudden influx of players.

 

Just saying, take everything with some amount of skepticism. EA's well known for playing dirty.

 

Believe hes getting them from torstatus if I had to guess.

 

http://www.torstatus.net/rwookrrorro/history/7d#!/rwookrrorro/history/30d

 

It's certainly not the lowest population server, and if its hitting standard pop that's actually not horrible. Not great, but not horrible

[Ansultares]

Believe hes getting them from torstatus if I had to guess.

I've already heard to no end about how torstatus is inaccurate and unusable; actually, I think a few people who have made such claims have participated in this thread already.

[Quip]

If there was only 2 people on Ilum, i highly doubt server cap increase was the issue here....does anyone read the original post anymore or do they just feel the need to qq without consequence?

 

 

Doesn't anybody understand how server populations work?

 

Bioware not only increased server population caps hundreds of times (and never reduced the standard for 'standard' to make them look less empty) but Bioware also used colossal pressure and heat to fuse many gamers into a single gamer. So when you actually count the players on your server, what you're counting is totally wrong. You need to use new maths to get an accurate count of how much YOU LOVE THIS GAME.

[Quip]

I've already heard to no end about how torstatus is inaccurate and unusable; actually, I think a few people who have made such claims have participated in this thread already.

 

It's not useless provided you understand that it is a chart of words, not numbers. It doesn't count it just tracks, light, standard, heavy, etc.

[Obadaya]

I kind of expected the drop-off in server population as people got burned out and the newness wore off. I'm sure Bioware expected it as well. Nothing to do but wait and find out what their plan is. Edited February 21, 2012 by Obadaya

[Agachakxyz]

I'm in the exact situation OP. I went with a lighter server at launch to avoid ques and initially it was fine. I leveled a BH tank spec and did flash points daily along the way. Now as I level Alts I haven't done an FP since the esseles/black talon intro FP. I try but usually even at peak times fleet is 40 or less. I was the only person on Tatooine yesterday for over 25 min and this was at 7 am on a sunday.

 

Server merge or transfers have to be available soon.

[Kourage]

It's prime time and Im the only Imperial on the planet Ilum on Krayiss Obelisk. Server status = Light

Edited February 21, 2012 by Kourage

[Thorun]

I play Imperial on the server Rwookrorro. I was one of those people who, during early access followed the developer's and community manager's advice to alleviate full servers and re-roll on one of the new ones. I and my few friends left our characters and started over on this new Server. Rwookrorro filled up fast and we started our own guild and had a blast leveling up and interacting with players, meeting new friends, etc..

 

Over the last few weeks I have noticed that there are less and less people online during peak hours. Rwookrorro is an eastern server and we peak around 8 and 9 pm. Over the weekend I hadn't noticed more then 45 people on the fleet. People from my guild have not signed as much too. People that were playing 3 or 4 times a week now play once or twice.

 

Then last night, I logged on to do my hard mode pvp dailes. I queued up for pvp while flying to Ilum to kill Reps. There was 2 people on Ilum, me and another Imperial. So driving around central picking up 30 armaments I realized that my queue never popped. That was strange because it was 8:30 PM and usually I only have to wait 5-10 mins, if that.

 

I went back to the fleet to do my hard mode daily. I am a tank, by necessity. Its by far the shortest role on our server. I don't mind it, and I'm pretty good at it, although respecing every day kinda sucks but that should be taken care of 1.2 So I ask a healer from my guild and he agrees to go immediately. Nice! Then I spam General LF2M DPS Any Hard Mode. After several minutes of no replies, I started to politely ask random 50s on the fleet. I got 1 DPS from that but I spend another 20 minutes looking for one more and I couldnt find it.

 

This was sorely disappointing, not in a QQ kinda way, but all I wanted to do was play the game and I couldn't because my server is dying/dead. I sat there contemplating what to do next when I realized my pvp queue still hadnt popped! I disbanded the "group", logged off and watched TV for the rest of the night.

 

i just wanted to share my story and see if anyone else is running into the same problems? I really enjoy this game but at 50 there really are only two things to do. PvP and flashpoints/ops. Both of which I enjoy doing, but now if this continues I wont even have that. What to do? Reroll again? I really really dont want to do that being I've put a months worth of work into this characters endgame equipment. Bioware has not stated if and more importantly when they will implement server transfers or at least some way to combat the lack of population.

 

TL'DR Bioware please release some sort of information about how to increase populations on light servers. Not being able to do Flashpoints or Warzones is NOT fun.

 

 

inb4 some fanbois smashing as of DEC 31st 2011 number of 1.7 million as 'proof' youre wrong in your face.

[Touchbass]

I kind of expected the drop-off in server population as people got burned out and the newness wore off. I'm sure Bioware expected it as well. Nothing to do but wait and find out what their plan is.

 

I hear ya, the fact that no plan is being released is going to just cause people to /quit over lack of confidence. MMORPG's are all about confidence.

[Kourage]

My server is still light. My alt server is now heavy. Just a matter of time before I make that other server my main server.

[Andryah]

I was the only person on Tatooine yesterday for over 25 min and this was at 7 am on a sunday.

 

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that 7:00 AM Sunday IS NOT prime time.

 

In fact, that might be about as far from prime time as you can get in an MMO.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Andryah

[Azzras]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=300191

 

Screenshots taken from this past Saturday of server status in NA.

[Kaelshi]

I play Imperial on the server Rwookrorro. I was one of those people who, during early access followed the developer's and community manager's advice to alleviate full servers and re-roll on one of the new ones. I and my few friends left our characters and started over on this new Server. Rwookrorro filled up fast and we started our own guild and had a blast leveling up and interacting with players, meeting new friends, etc..

 

Over the last few weeks I have noticed that there are less and less people online during peak hours. Rwookrorro is an eastern server and we peak around 8 and 9 pm. Over the weekend I hadn't noticed more then 45 people on the fleet. People from my guild have not signed as much too. People that were playing 3 or 4 times a week now play once or twice.

 

Then last night, I logged on to do my hard mode pvp dailes. I queued up for pvp while flying to Ilum to kill Reps. There was 2 people on Ilum, me and another Imperial. So driving around central picking up 30 armaments I realized that my queue never popped. That was strange because it was 8:30 PM and usually I only have to wait 5-10 mins, if that.

 

I went back to the fleet to do my hard mode daily. I am a tank, by necessity. Its by far the shortest role on our server. I don't mind it, and I'm pretty good at it, although respecing every day kinda sucks but that should be taken care of 1.2 So I ask a healer from my guild and he agrees to go immediately. Nice! Then I spam General LF2M DPS Any Hard Mode. After several minutes of no replies, I started to politely ask random 50s on the fleet. I got 1 DPS from that but I spend another 20 minutes looking for one more and I couldnt find it.

 

This was sorely disappointing, not in a QQ kinda way, but all I wanted to do was play the game and I couldn't because my server is dying/dead. I sat there contemplating what to do next when I realized my pvp queue still hadnt popped! I disbanded the "group", logged off and watched TV for the rest of the night.

 

i just wanted to share my story and see if anyone else is running into the same problems? I really enjoy this game but at 50 there really are only two things to do. PvP and flashpoints/ops. Both of which I enjoy doing, but now if this continues I wont even have that. What to do? Reroll again? I really really dont want to do that being I've put a months worth of work into this characters endgame equipment. Bioware has not stated if and more importantly when they will implement server transfers or at least some way to combat the lack of population.

 

TL'DR Bioware please release some sort of information about how to increase populations on light servers. Not being able to do Flashpoints or Warzones is NOT fun.

 

 

when you say "I'm not qqing" in a post - you're qqing.

 

my servers po has BOOMED since I started. No MMO will ever get the amount of servers perfect and it is part of the business. Eventually I expect they will have server transfers but until then you're stuck.

 

Anyone who says they did not know this could happen is silly - there are WOW servers that are still more or less ghost towns(and have been for years) and the only reason you don't hear much about it is because of LFD.

[LiStarr]

Flame it all you want make up reason for this and that.. the simple fact is the game is dying a slow death.. if I am wrong then come Dec 31, 2012 I will come back and admit it but mark my words this game is dead by the end of the year and is free to play.