When will there be a "SERVER MERGE?"

[BrotardNosef]

Need to have merges... my server hasn't hit rock bottom yet but its been in a steady decline for a month. Every Monday I'll log in ~7 AM PST and see about 10 less people at the fleet than there were the past week. I've yet to see an increase in numbers logged on from week to week in my entire time playing, at any time of the day/night.

 

I would at the very least like a statement from the Devs one way or another about the whole situation.

[Beachcomberb]

EU primetime servers :

 

Very Heavy 1

 

Heavy 3

 

Standard 78

 

Light 9

 

 

Do something about this please and stop being in denial about server loads.

[NotDonnaReed]

It just drives me nuts when someone actually expects the total sub base to be online 24/7 and shouts the sky is falling when they don't see that. People quitting a game because their fleet has X people in it while not bothering to try to understand why is just annoying.

 

For example League of Legends has a 11.3 million "subbase" and 1.3 million concurrent users (players on at the same time ) 11.5%

 

source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...umber-one-mmo/

 

If we apply this 11.5% to Swtor "supposed" subbase of 1.7 million players we get 195 500 people online at any given time spread that population out evenly (which obviously it isn't) and you get around 901 people per server

 

 

So 450 for your faction pop 17 planets and fleet = 25

 

Keep in mind that does not include instances, warzones or personal ships

 

If it's numbers you want, have a gander at this.

 

At peak time, which appears to be 9pm EST on my server, we have ~350 people total on both factions. Not 350 for each faction. 350 for the whole server. (At off-peak times such as morning and early afternoon we have ~200 both factions.)

 

Last weekend, each faction had ~10 level 50s in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, and I had to whisper every one of them individually to get a warzone queue to fill up. Everyone who got in commented that this was the first time they'd done PVP since they turned 50 because the queues never pop on our server.

 

Whenever I enter a flashpoint, I check the Social Center to see how many other people are also in there. Unless I'm running Esseles, my group is almost always the only one.

 

When I'm questing on planets, I ask if anyone else wants to join for heroics or dailies. Nine times out of ten there's only two other people on the whole planet, and they're not looking to group up.

 

My server is dead. Every day I have to convince a guild member or two to hold out just a little bit longer because surely they'll give us a server merger soon.

 

It's easy to tell someone to just re-roll on a higher pop server, but we've invested three months in these characters. They have maxed professions, reverse-engineered schematics, and nearly-maxed gear. Why should we throw all that out the window because BioWare offered too many servers at launch?

 

Bottom line: 200-350 people does not qualify as an MMO. They need to do a 2-1 or 3-1 merger and FAST.

[NotDonnaReed]

I don't think there are population issues for Europe. When I checked 13 hours ago, almost all of them have Standard population. One at heavy. Very few at Light.

 

It's just the US players who cannot get their act together. It's unfortunate that your server is having population problems, but for the rest of us it seems fine. And hopefully Dalborra stays that way.

 

Much of the problem is they set the Light/Standard thresholds way too low. My server is normally labeled Light (with around 250 people), and occasionally we venture into Standard (with around 350 people).

 

Are you telling me they truly meant for a "standard" server to have 350 people? That's 175 per faction, divided by how many planets plus the Fleet plus flashpoints plus ships. That means they intended to have less than 10 people per planet?? That's nuts. If that's what they intended, why did they bother creating 4-man heroic quests, because we sure as heck will never be able to run them.

 

IMO "standard" should be 1000 people per server.

[WhiskyJax]

If it's numbers you want, have a gander at this.

 

At peak time, which appears to be 9pm EST on my server, we have ~350 people total on both factions. Not 350 for each faction. 350 for the whole server. (At off-peak times such as morning and early afternoon we have ~200 both factions.)

 

Last weekend, each faction had ~10 level 50s in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, and I had to whisper every one of them individually to get a warzone queue to fill up. Everyone who got in commented that this was the first time they'd done PVP since they turned 50 because the queues never pop on our server.

 

Whenever I enter a flashpoint, I check the Social Center to see how many other people are also in there. Unless I'm running Esseles, my group is almost always the only one.

 

When I'm questing on planets, I ask if anyone else wants to join for heroics or dailies. Nine times out of ten there's only two other people on the whole planet, and they're not looking to group up.

 

My server is dead. Every day I have to convince a guild member or two to hold out just a little bit longer because surely they'll give us a server merger soon.

 

It's easy to tell someone to just re-roll on a higher pop server, but we've invested three months in these characters. They have maxed professions, reverse-engineered schematics, and nearly-maxed gear. Why should we throw all that out the window because BioWare offered too many servers at launch?

 

Bottom line: 200-350 people does not qualify as an MMO. They need to do a 2-1 or 3-1 merger and FAST.

 

What is your server? because if you are on one of the more lower,lower pop servers that would be about right...

[Ghostryder]

Darth Malak averaged 70 people or so on Republic Fleet about 6 weeks ago. Now barely 25. This is around 8pm MST. I am on almost every night. I can barely win warzones anymore and getting my daily and weekly done is near impossible. I have since stopped playing and pvping on that server. I run some PVE with friends when we can.

 

I have re-rolled a char on Swiftsure which averages 150 during the same time frames, but i am finding it hard to start over and logging in is now a chore because i dont feel like investing that much time again just to get back to where i was.

 

I think its time they just accept the facts and merge servers. Its been hard to come to this conclusion, but my playing is now severly affected. I see my self unsubbing soon until transfers are in. This suks because I love the game and want to play, but when you play on a ghosttown of a server, its just not fun.

[Bofurt]

I would really like to see a yellow post on the subject right now.

 

I'm sure that 1.2 will bring many people back, but I want to experience the current content which is impossible to do when there is only 30-40 people on my fleet at any given time. There are people in my guild that log in every tuesday to see if 1.2 dropped yet, and when they find out it hasn't, "See you all ext tuesday!" This is really disturbing to me, because I decided to enjoy the leveling experience to 50, and I didn't rush. So I am left with a barren ghost land of the server, because everyone cleared the content. I love this game, but not being able to experience content is really bringing me down.

 

After all, I can easily go back to WoW right now, hop into a CROSS- SERVER que for a dungeon, battleground, or even a raid. I have heard that a LFG tool is coming in 1.3 but it's not cross- server. I heard that ranked warzones are coming in 1.2, but its not cross-- server. Honestly, what do the devs have against cross- server queuing? It would personnally greatly enhance my experience because I would not have to be spamming chat on my fleet for an hour and a half just to find a PUG for a HM.

 

Why should I have to reroll on anyother server? Another possible fix for this issue is character transfers. I realize the problem this poses with the legacy system and whatnot, but as of now, the legacy system is in a beta state until 1.2- it is nothing but a name you wear on your nameplate and level up. In fact, all of SWTOR has been in a beta state since launch. 1.2 should have been what it launched with. This game presents an immense amount of potential and I am not trying to hate on it, I'm just giving my honest opinion, hoping that it will make my SWTOR experience better.

 

Every time that this topic has been presented to the devs, they say that server pops are just fine. But we know they aren't. We are the players running around on an empty fleet. Please, devs can we get an explanation.

[WhiskyJax]

Snipped for space.

 

This was posted on 3/1

 

Hello everyone. I can absolutely understand the frustrations expressed here, and I appreciate that for the most part, you're being constructive in your comments. Here's a little more insight into the situation.

 

The character transfer system is being actively worked on by the development team. It's a large, complex project, made more complicated by the Legacy System - and it has to work perfectly. As always, it is not the only task the team as a whole is undertaking, but it's a priority. It has not been deliberately delayed, nor is it being 'held back' for any reason. As you know, the first stage of the system will be a one-off, optional transfer for those who are based in the regions defined in our FAQ. At some point after that, we'll bring a more fully-featured character transfer system online for all to use.

 

I can understand the frustration of those of you who have been playing on the US servers and waiting for transfers. We know your enthusiasm and excitement for the game - you wouldn't have taken the steps you did to get the game earlier than the official launch if you weren't enthusiastic. We're working as hard as we can to get the system in place. If we could have brought it online earlier, we would have. However, priorities post-launch had to be directed towards the game itself. The team's been working flat-out to improve the game, including bug fixes and additional content.

 

When we announced our launch territories last year we knew many more fans were excited to play The Old Republic. That's why we moved quickly to launch in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore, with more territories being lined up for future launches. Our primary focus when launching in any new territory has to be to reach more players. Ultimately, that's best for the continuing success of the game. We want everyone who wishes to play on the new servers to be able to do so, hence character transfer being offered. With that said, in this case we felt it was important to get the game into the hands of new players as soon as possible. That, combined with our post-launch development priorities, meant that character transfer did not make our launch date for these territories.

 

The development team remains committed to delivering a robust character transfer system for all, with our first priority being for Asia-Pacific players. If we can bring the system to you earlier than expected, we will, but for now we’re aiming towards late April.

Stephen Reid | Senior Online Community Manager

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[MetalMafia]

Im not going to wait anymore for this so called "More Subscribers". My server hasn't changed one bit from lvl 1 - 50. Been 50 for 2 weeks.. LFG... hey.. LFG... hello... im LFG... comeon im a healer.. LFG.. a waste of my time.

 

Theres one thing i hate more than hitler.. its wasting my time.

I don't get to play much, so when i do, i dont want to LFG 1/2 my playing time away.

 

My only guess for no server merge is that SWTOR's Max Player Capacity must be very very low (comparing to WoW).

 

Leveling in swtor was the best MMO lvling experience i've ever had, but endgame... no1 to play with.. whats the point.

 

I guess its back to WoW... sigh....

[swtorEleani]

SWTOR is dying and it's not a slow death...

The nerf-patch (aka 1.2) will deliver the killing blow.

 

It's plain dumb to release a patch nerfing almost every class across the board.

All the problems (and the ones that are not there actually), about class-imbalance in pvp and easymode-pve were given by the beta-tester before the game was released.

[Archdeaconzero]

My server is dead, 2+ hr pvp Q for low levels. One hr for lvl 50 Q's. While Questing Ive never seen more than 20 people in a single zone, most of the time is less than 5 people.

[recsa]

IMHO this is right now the TOP problem SWTOR has, ppl on healthy populated servers might not know about it, but every STANDARD and LIGHT server is plain dead, my server (HEX DROID) is usually listed as STANDARD but the most read comment on general is "OMG this server is dead" and its true, 50-80 ppl at imp fleet in peak time, absolutely impossible to do low lvl heroics with alts because most of the time i'm the only one on low lvl planets, dead GTN, guilds are merging and vanishing in a daily basis because ppl is leaving game or rerolling alts in HEAVY servers, ....

 

What worries me the most is my server being listed as STANDARD, is really this what BW wants as an STANDARD population????

 

 

Please, im begging you BW, allow me to migrate my toons or at least my main to a server of my choice.

Edited March 22, 2012 by recsa

[Tyraelium]

I stood on the Imperial Fleet and watched general chat NOT move for nearly an hour today.

 

I want to be on a Fleet with 200+ players, not one with 20-30 when I play.

 

Either merge servers NOW, and maintain your subscription count or wait and merge servers when everyone has gotten fed up and quit already.

 

Server merging/closing is an INEVITABILITY. The longer you choose to delay, the more subscriptions you will bleed. When May rolls around and everyone is playing Diablo3, GW2, Tera, and the MOP Beta, it will be too late to save this game. Then it becomes free 2 play.

[AdmiralOnasi]

It really is night and day when you look at say, The Fatman, compared to a low end server like mine, Terentatek. I started an alt on The Fatman, because like many of you, my server has hardly anyone on it except for about 3 hours every day.

 

Off peak Rep Fleet population on The Fatman: 110

Off peak Rep Fleet population on Terentatek: 20

 

Look, the game launched with too many servers, it's not a sin to admit it and merge some of them together to make everyone's experience more fun.

[JediTahiri]

BW problably thinks STANDARD servers are a good experience which they are terrible. so they will probably merge light servers just making them standard and act like they fixed all the problems.

[Andryah]

every STANDARD and LIGHT server is plain dead

 

So, when you exagerate, nobody will take anything else you say seriously.

 

I play on three different STANDARD servers and they are all quite alive, the GTNs are busy, the zones are busy as they have been for the last 6 weeks, and there is healthy bantor taking place in /general in every planet I visit, and people finding groups without much trouble.

 

LIGHT servers, yeah probably dead or dying as people simply reroll to other servers.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Andryah

[Soullessone]

anchorhead was by far the heaviest to start with now it is at most light and standard. The fatman is by far now the most popular east coast pvp server, it's freaking ridiculous trying to get an ilum ops group together on anchorhead let alone groups for fp. YOU CANT FIND ANYONE HALF THE TIME!!!

[Febibi]

Seems like almost every server is low population. At Peak hours, there are not many people on any one server. Rift had this issue, and in the beginning, they shut down servers, and allowed people to merge to other servers. It's odd that it takes hours at lvl 50 for a PVP game to pop, as there is hardly anyone on the servers. They also need to implement CROSS REALM Ques. WOW did this, and was a huge success. For any new MMO not to include this off the bat, is beyond bizarre to me. I think Bioware is too focused on fixing bugs than getting these servers in line. Wish I never leveled on what is now a "Low POP" server, as most of the time I feel like this is a single player game.

 

Bioware, what say you?

 

Apparently Never...unless you hire a lawyer to defend against harassment

[WhiskyJax]

anchorhead was by far the heaviest to start with now it is at most light and standard. The fatman is by far now the most popular east coast pvp server, it's freaking ridiculous trying to get an ilum ops group together on anchorhead let alone groups for fp. YOU CANT FIND ANYONE HALF THE TIME!!!

 

Anchorhead is in the bottom 50 servers and has been for a month

The Crucible Pits is in the top 30 but is considered a light server

 

What this means is that you are going to have far less then 450 players per faction during peak times and half that if you are lucky off peak times. That means no more then 25 people on a planet/fleet at best and thats if no one is doing instances,warzones or on their ships

[Strangefate]

So, when you exagerate, nobody will take anything else you say seriously.

 

I play on three different STANDARD servers and they are all quite alive, the GTNs are busy, the zones are busy as they have been for the last 6 weeks, and there is healthy bantor taking place in /general in every planet I visit, and people finding groups without much trouble.

 

LIGHT servers, yeah probably dead or dying as people simply reroll to other servers.

 

My standard server is dead too, you may see 10+ players on most planets at primetime, but rarely more than 20.... and this was a server that used to hit heavy load during prime time... and I rerolled already into it from a standard, now light server.

 

Also, 'dead' and 'quite alive' are equally relative terms based on your expectations for an MMO.

 

As some people have pointed out before, a standard server could have 500 or 2000 people logged on, we don't know what the range for standard is.

Therefore, standard may feel alive for some, and very dead for others, and both players would be right.

 

Regardless, the fact that there's so many posts and complains about servers being dead, makes you think that a significant number of standard servers are too close to being light, and light servers are just plain sad...

 

Something needs to be done, mergers or *free* transfers.

Ideally BW would comment on this issue even if its to dismiss it, but at least that would give us an idea of where we stand and what to do with your subs and toons.

 

However, since BW hasn't commented on the issue yet, it is surely safe to assume that they just haven't seen the many related threads, cause if they had, I'm sure they would say something as I'm sure they care about the community.

 

The best course of action would seem to keep raising flags until we can be sure that BW has seen them, we love to help make this game more enjoyable and point out anything tha stands in the way of this goal.

[Berrett]

I think they would like to merge server's to increase the population, but assuming they would have to merge 3 republic and 2 Sith server's on to one server could be quit demanding for the tech guys.

 

You know the weekend pass is a great idea, give time to roll a character and limit the character to the beginning of the 2nd class story then if they want keep going they need to subscribe.

 

There's just way too many server's for a new game, we need to scream and yell for server merges, end every topic with a "When are you going to server merge" or something like that.

[Vaergoth]

http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/trends

 

Overall, all U.S. Servers have gone from "Light" 30% of the time in Jan. to "Light" 70% of the time now.

 

Data doesn't get much more solid than that.

 

The problem is, they can't do server merges because it will scare investors.

 

So...what's the solution?

[thedarkon]

No need for server merges. Bioware told us the number of subscribers is increasing and if we remember correctly all the servers were full around christmas. So if anything bioware needs to increase the number of servers by 2-3 the amount and offer free transfers from old servers to the new ones. We don't want hour long ques and thousands of people on the fleets.

 

 

unless ofc bioware was trolling us.

 

But yet thats what a MMO supposed to be like there supposed to be Thousands of people on lol or otherwise its not a MMO

Edited March 22, 2012 by thedarkon

[Ushela]

http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/trends

 

Overall, all U.S. Servers have gone from "Light" 30% of the time in Jan. to "Light" 70% of the time now.

 

Data doesn't get much more solid than that.

 

The problem is, they can't do server merges because it will scare investors.

 

So...what's the solution?

 

The reason for that large of a swing is because the server pop caps have been raised since January. Im not disputing that some servers have become barren, trust me I know, I have a toon on one...Im just stating that you cant use torstatus in the way you are to back up the statement you made.

[Vaergoth]

The reason for that large of a swing is because the server pop caps have been raised since January. Im not disputing that some servers have become barren, trust me I know, I have a toon on one...Im just stating that you cant use torstatus in the way you are to back up the statement you made.

 

Yeah, I rerolled on a maximum pop server and that one has fallen a little, but it's still playable.

 

Can you link me to where they said they raised popcap? Because, even if they did, then torstatus should show a sudden spike and not a gradual increase in the quantity of "Light" times.