Server Transfers - Not a top priority why?

[Kosherbean]

So, while I'm not trying to belittle anyone's individual desires for what they want to see in the game, I feel like the priorities of Bioware are slightly off from where they should be.

 

From last patch notes....

 

 

General

 

Added a /version command.

Added several new preferences for cooldown appearance:

 

Show Ready Flash: Toggles a bright flash when an ability finishes cooldown.

Show Global Cooldown Ready Flash: Toggles a bright flash when an ability finishes global cooldown.

Cooldown Style: Changes the art style for the cooldown graphic.

Global Cooldown Style: Changes the art style for the global cooldown graphic.

Show Cooldown Timer: Toggles cooldown time text on top of the ability icon in the quickbar.

 

 

 

Now, granted, they also fixed numerous bugs, and good for them. But bioware has also put SGRA on the priority list. Now everywhere I go, from the forums to 3rd party websites people are talking about high population servers and how long ques are just to get into the game. I for one am on a very low server (Axial Park) and never have trouble getting into the game, merely to find that at 10pm on a Thursday night there are only 22 level 50 Imperials on the entire server. This means that HM and OPs are non-existent (haven't been able to do one in 2 weeks) and PVP has 5 hour ques for a match that ends in 2 minutes. SGRA are nice and all, but should being able to marry someone and lose all future story content from that companion override the fact that there are so many players that can't even play?

[CoyoteMoon]

i Feel ya, same on my server w used to have players going for raids and hard modes. but they all got their gear and stopped playing. so the fresh lvl 50's have a very hard time getting a group together for anything. like i cant imagine more than 25 or so people on fleet since on my server that has been the max and that was 7pm on a sat. seems like a couple low pop servers could be combined and split a couple of full servers. but i guess people will just keep going to other games tillBW decides that this is an issue rather than focusing on tiny issues like whether my companion headgear can be removed :/

[Kosherbean]

Agreed. I just can't see how a profitable company can justify where they've placed their priorities on this one. :/

[Metaspark]

the real question is why did they launch with so many damn servers in the first place?

[Calinaph]

damn computer. Edited February 24, 2012 by Calinaph

[shotgun-clavy]

the real question is why did they launch with so many damn servers in the first place?

 

this is what i said in the first place, its actually RIDICULOUS how many servers there are.

[Kosherbean]

I honestly can't blame them there, with as much hype and excitement surrounding the game's release, and as successful as the release was, i completely understand wanting to be over prepared. The problem is that there was no backup plan. No foresight.

[Calinaph]

First, MMORPGs are composed of teams. Teams rarely have overlapping functions, and their skills are not fungible. The 3-D modelers making new hats can’t stop what they’re doing and debug server optimization code. This applies across all aspects of development. Even with coding, someone working on the quest engine isn’t going to fix display glitches. Someone responsible for UI responsiveness can’t help solve memory leaks. In general, even if it’s possible to retrain someone, it’s a waste of time to do so — they’re much more useful doing what they were hired to do.

 

Second, you can’t easily “hire more programmers!” Most importantly, there’s a huge learning curve — it can take weeks or months to get even a very skilled programmer up to speed on the existing code base. Also, you cannot simply throw resources at a problem. There’s a point at which more programmers equals slower bug fixes as they quite literally get in each other’s way. (And every new hire increases total overhead, which means more HR and support costs, which means less money for other things…)

 

Third, not all bugs are of equal difficulty. If a patch list is filled with “In the Quest ‘Seven Diamonds For Seven Ogres’, we fixed the timer so that it’s now possible to complete the run”, do not whine “Waah! How can they fix this when there’s still crashes whenever someone walks backwards while executing the /juggle emote and it’s a Tuesday?” It’s because quest issues (and many similar bugs) can usually be fixed by editing a database, something which can be accomplished quickly, tested quickly, and performed by relatively junior team members with only minimal oversight and QA — while server and memory bugs are often insanely complicated, need extensive regression testing, and take the ‘best and brightest’. If you can assign one junior programmer to clean out three dozen quest bugs in a patch cycle, or have him be basically useless while more experienced programmers do all the real work, what would you do? There’s no reason not to clean up the little bugs while the big ones are being worked on."

 

http://mrlizard.com/rants/why-havent-they-fixed-this-bug/

Edited February 24, 2012 by Calinaph

[CandiceAurora]

I imagine it is a priority, however, they're waiting till after the Asia-Pacific release. Feasibly it is easier to manage those free transfers first, get them off and away, then open up what I imagine will be paid transfers for everyone wishing to bound around servers. I don't blame them for not opening up transfers right away - getting people to sink time into alts or re-rolling gets them more game time, and waiting to see how populations stabilize is also wise. Shame they opened with so many servers, I think that was a poor decision.

[Kosherbean]

I imagine it is a priority, however, they're waiting till after the Asia-Pacific release. Feasibly it is easier to manage those free transfers first, get them off and away, then open up what I imagine will be paid transfers for everyone wishing to bound around servers. I don't blame them for not opening up transfers right away - getting people to sink time into alts or re-rolling gets them more game time, and waiting to see how populations stabilize is also wise. Shame they opened with so many servers, I think that was a poor decision.

 

More game time in SWTOR, such as rerolling alts, would effectively mean +1 month subscription. I can cap an alt in a few weeks, but if i can't do anything end game you're losing 3+ months subscription per toon i'm trying to obtain gear on, minimum. Also, in response to everyone has a differing job and whatnot, I get it. But moving character data from one server to another, even on a large scale is hardly difficult in the scheme of things. I just personally feel that this should be the top priority of bioware in conjunction with fixing bugs. Guess it's just frustrating to see the developer's spotlight talk about SGRA and chat bubbles when those two agendas have nothing to do with the functionality of the game, yet server population determines if you can log in (high pop) and if you can do anything but solo (low pop).