Server population is dropping...

[Strangefate]

OK OK - I give - the population is dropping - the games gonna die - fine, I got the message.

 

Now - will you lot please leave and let us enjoy this "dieing game" in peace?

 

Sheesh.

 

sure, go enjoy it... I fail to see how a thread in a forum affects your enjoyment of the game... you need to chill out perhaps.

[jinxsters]

yes they need to merge servers and they need to do it now before it makes people leave. i dont have a problem i am on fatman.

[LeonBraun]

Friday night, prime time. Less than 200 Imperials on my server. I assume the Republic side is even lower.

 

Friday nights are typically dead for MMO's... Tuesdays and mid week are the high activity days...

[Morridan]

Your experience fits very well with my numbers:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aregkvys5QFodDlvU05lQ3o2S3ZrYU9SYjRwM29OSnc#gid=0

 

Most of the characters on my server (Sanctum of the Exalted, RP-PvE, US EST) are less than level 30.

 

Paige

 

uh you may want to remove the email addresses from those you surveyed, i'm sure they wouldn't appreciate getting a ton of spam mail from the trolls across these forums

[Vegetian]

Well I have noticied a drop, in almost every zone that I've been in. This is especially the case at the Imp fleet. A month ago the pop would hover around 80-100 players around 7am, on a weekday, and usually 130-170 players at 7am (EST Times) on a weekend.

 

Now logging in at the same time there's between 25-40 players @ 7am (again EST) on the weekdays and usually 60-80 @ 7am on the weekends. Granted that's not necessarily peak playing time (I work the night shift), but there's clearly been a drop in population. I can't speak for other servers. It's even worse on planet zones, where there used to be around 30-40 players each zone, its down to 1-10 players. Although it's reasonable to expect that most ppl have leveled quick...since it's easy to level up in this game. Again this is all around 7-8am EST, which isn't peak time. However, you'd still expect to see a larger player base.

 

All populations are Imperial faction, I have no idea about the republic faction on Veela.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Vegetian

[Vegetian]

OK OK - I give - the population is dropping - the games gonna die - fine, I got the message.

 

Now - will you lot please leave and let us enjoy this "dieing game" in peace?

 

Sheesh.

 

I think that's a little harsh. I don't think the game is gonna die, but it's clear the population is dropping. That's not necessarily subs are dropping, but just in-game population. Some ppl may be sitting around waiting for 1.2 and the features it brings. So we'll see.

[DarthRamette]

My husband and I left Gauntlet of Kresh due to it being pretty dead, we are on Lord Ielidris and it is pretty good now. I know there are some servers that are pretty empty.

[Morridan]

This game has a great population, problem is it's fractured apart too much. The worse thing that is going to happen to this game is going to grow with the Asian launch and people are going to say that's evidence that the population problems are unjustified and trolls. I don't understand how people subbing in the Asian market are going to help me find a flashpoint while leveling my alt in NA, cause that is the core of the issue.

 

There are tons of viable options to fix the gameplay on these servers: Mergers/Cross server queues/free transfers. Only issue is the time frame, I don't want to have to wait indefinately. I know transfers are coming up soon but how much are they going to cost? I have 3-4 toons that I refuse to reroll since leveling the same class again is too linear and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way. I dropped $150 on transfers in WoW in TBC only to have my server die in WOTLK due to lag issues, I will never pay for a server again unless it's very reasonable.

 

apart from what people believe, people from the asian/oceanic markets were already playing before the mar 1 launch... they simply played on NA/EU servers. If anything, the launch will pull players from the previously existing servers and push it onto the 3 servers launched for use in that region

[Andryah]

Well I have noticied a drop, in almost every zone that I've been in. This is especially the case at the Imp fleet. A month ago the pop would hover around 80-100 players around 7am, on a weekday, and usually 130-170 players at 7am (EST Times) on a weekend.

 

Now logging in at the same time there's between 25-40 players @ 7am (again EST) on the weekdays and usually 60-80 @ 7am on the weekends. Granted that's not necessarily peak playing time (I work the night shift), but there's clearly been a drop in population. I can't speak for other servers. It's even worse on planet zones, where there used to be around 30-40 players each zone, its down to 1-10 players. Although it's reasonable to expect that most ppl have leveled quick...since it's easy to level up in this game. Again this is all around 7-8am EST, which isn't peak time. However, you'd still expect to see a larger player base.

 

All populations are Imperial faction, I have no idea about the republic faction on Veela.

 

So people are not playing 7/24 anymore. Not surprising, 3 months after launch. The obsessive feeding frenzy period is over.

 

7:00 AM server time is hardly prime time for any server.

 

What is your prime time population like? Oh, and less people loiter in fleet now, so you cannot use fleet as your reference.

 

Note: It's Midnight Friday night and your server (Veela) still has well over a thousand people logged on.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Andryah

[Shankspeare]

Seems like everyone thinks that this great game is gonna die. Its new and needs some tweeking! If everyone keeps talking about the game dying it will. Its kinda like if you hear it enough times it eventually becomes reality. I hope this is not the truth. I havent gotten to play much since I started working again but I love this game. I have 6 years into my WoW account and pretty much put it on hold just for this game. I love both games but I like this one more. I find it annoying how little people talk to each other in the game though. Must just be my server. Ive been looking for a laid back guild to run and talk with and can not find anything. Thats the one thing I do like about the other game is that there is always chat. Its always busy. Hoping to be able to have free time to lvl to 50 soon. I hope this game turns into a 6 expansion saga like the other one will.

[Nazferiti]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/parmizan/fefcee57.jpg

 

How can anybody say that this is fine, or even acceptable? yes, some servers are OK, but for servers like The Shadow Runner, it's virtually impossible at any point levelling to get groups for flashpoints or heroic missions. Warzones are restricted to a couple of hours a day when there are enough people online, and only a couple of guilds can manage enough players for raids. The rest have rerolled or simply quit. We need an answer from bioware... fast.

 

Picture taken at 2:30 AM is not proof of dead servers. Nice Troll!

[Touchbass]

apart from what people believe, people from the asian/oceanic markets were already playing before the mar 1 launch... they simply played on NA/EU servers. If anything, the launch will pull players from the previously existing servers and push it onto the 3 servers launched for use in that region

 

Yeah, almost all of Australia was online prior to the Asian launch so I'm sure that's the case for many other countries within the release. The fact that 3 servers only opened shows that the market isn't massive.

[Strangefate]

That's nonsense, I can log into any other MMO at 2am and there will be a considerable population.

 

Some of you are acting like dead servers are normal unless it's prime time.

 

I too think that the game has a decent player base and I'd say there's very few people saying the game is dying and so on... people are just saying that their servers are empty, there's too many servers.

 

When the top 5-6 servers are enjoying a great game, community, in game economy etc... I don't understand how people can think that most of the servers that have half the population of less, compared the top 5-6 server, can also still be enjoying an equally great experience... that's just absurd.

 

http://dulfy.net/2012/02/24/some-numerical-population-data-for-swtor-servers/

 

You can see there how the average population is spread, 2/3 of the servers simply wont be doing as well as the top ones, and if you're on the rep side, you take an additional hit.

[Touchbass]

Picture taken at 2:30 AM is not proof of dead servers. Nice Troll!

 

Yeah, we have to be careful how we evaluate evidence but in this case he has a point. Under no stretch of the imagination should the game be full at 2:30am (what time zone is he in?), but there should be at least more that online at 2:30am regardless. People work different shift jobs, college students stay up late and the unemployed/mentally ill tend to medicate themselves with long sessions into the night. This quick after release no server should have low level of activity.

[Touchbass]

That's nonsense, I can log into any other MMO at 2am and there will be a considerable population.

 

Some of you are acting like dead servers are normal unless it's prime time.

 

I too think that the game has a decent player base and I'd say there's very few people saying the game is dying and so on... people are just saying that their servers are empty, there's too many servers.When the top 5-6 servers are enjoying a great game, community, in game economy etc... I don't understand how people can think that most of the servers that have half the population of less, compared the top 5-6 server, can also still be enjoying an equally great experience... that's just absurd.

 

http://dulfy.net/2012/02/24/some-numerical-population-data-for-swtor-servers/

 

You can see there how the average population is spread, 2/3 of the servers simply wont be doing as well as the top ones, and if you're on the rep side, you take an additional hit.

 

I could handle the smaller populations on certain realms if it wasn't for the inability for people to want to group up to do things. If you aren't on a Triple A server, online with your guild/friends or prime your pretty much up screwed when it comes to finding a group

[miikke]

Blizzard has just introduced a new thing called "revive a friend", where you send a ex-wow player a "Scroll of Resurrection" and they get a week free wow with added benefits if they decide to return to wow.

 

Already 2 friends of mine who started playing SWTOR have canceled their subs here and gone back to WOW (booo)

 

I wonder how many more disappointed ex-wow players will do that as well?

[Colow_Leper]

Blizzard has just introduced a new thing called "revive a friend", where you send a ex-wow player a "Scroll of Resurrection" and they get a week free wow with added benefits if they decide to return to wow.

 

Already 2 friends of mine who started playing SWTOR have canceled their subs here and gone back to WOW (booo)

 

I wonder how many more disappointed ex-wow players will do that as well?

 

Not new - they did that a couple of years ago (in fact, I think that it may be an on-going thing).

 

Thing is, this game and WoW (despite the UI and battle mechanics being almost ported across - in order to make it an easy transfer) are very different.

 

BW wants you to experience the stories - so, despite there already being end-game content at launch (pretty much the only MMO to do that) they really want you to roll alts.

 

For the guys that liked to raid in WoW, SWTOR is probably not the right game for them - WoW used to be the game I liked - but when I tried it out in a "free week" I lasted about 15 minutes. Stormwind looked like one of those nuclear test towns with the dummies in it - everyone was just standing there waiting for their dungeaon/raid/battleground to come uo - even chat was dead.

 

But WoW's evolved over the years - it's got a lot on end-game stuff.

 

One of the things that I don't get are the people that I see on here saying "I don't want to repeat HMFPs and Raids to just to get better gear - so I'm going back to WoW" - that, from what I remember, is exactly what you did in WoW.

 

Could just be that they're missing their friends too.

[ParMizaN]

Picture taken at 2:30 AM is not proof of dead servers. Nice Troll!

 

Right, so only 1 other person is on the fleet when I get home from work. What am I meant to do? Accept that I can't play the game on my server? I'm certain that if I went to another server like Tomb of Ajunta Pall (Eu) There would be more than 20 people on the fleet and I could at least get a warzone or something. I realise that population will decline at night, but it absolutely should not decline to the point where it's impossible to do any sort of multiplayer activity for more than 50% of the day. This will push people out of the game, I know a lot of people have rerolled or simply quit.

 

Frankly I feel bad for the republic on this server...

[Narny]

Quite whining and start playing. I too was on a dead server. Kellian Jarro to be specific. I leveled my very first char up to 50, I did every single quest on every single planet. I was so proud of myself. I finally dinged 50, ignoring the fact that there was like 30 people on fleet at prime time. That nearly every planet I was levelling on had like 5 people on it who didn't even seem to be there. Probably AFK or just pissed off with the situation.

 

Well I got to 50, and there was nothing. No flashpoint group's, no way to recruit any players to guild. It royally sucked. So I started levelling and alt... waiting for the time when more players would come. I got to 43... they never came. And I realised, I was screwed.

 

OMG the game is dead. Oh wait.... Lets have a look at the other servers. Yes, players are migrating to higher populated servers.

 

So I rerolled on Nightmare Lands. Got to 50 again (I won't even try to deny this didn't annoy the hell out of me). Yes indeed there should have been server mergers already. But oh well, transfers are coming eventually.

 

Long story short, I now have a 50 on a populated server where there's nearly 200 on fleet at prime time, loads of people on Illum all willing to help out, and getting a flashpoint group is pretty easy. The ONLY problem I see is that most people are LFG, and not LFM. Basically they're all looking for a group, and not willing to start one. I've seen 6 people all wanting the same thing, and not bothering to group, all waiting for someone else to start the group. If you can get past this and just start one yourself... Its all good.

 

Moral of the story is... if you really want to play this game, stop whining, go re-roll on a populated server and have fun. ************ about it on the forums is not going to solve your problem. I'm now a happy customer. Yes the game may die. Yes a lot of servers are underpopulated and need merging... but until that happens, you have two options... go play something else. Or roll on a populated server and milk it for all the fun you can get.

[devyne]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/parmizan/fefcee57.jpg

 

How can anybody say that this is fine, or even acceptable? yes, some servers are OK, but for servers like The Shadow Runner, it's virtually impossible at any point levelling to get groups for flashpoints or heroic missions. Warzones are restricted to a couple of hours a day when there are enough people online, and only a couple of guilds can manage enough players for raids. The rest have rerolled or simply quit. We need an answer from bioware... fast.

 

LOL@ uneral m8 yah idk what time you log in at but during peak hours im seeing 65ish people on fleet and over 100 50s there just elsewhere i guess....

 

but yah i said server merges where needed for our server and others a while ago and i agree they gotta stop putting there head in their asses up their in bioware. server merges would only bring more subs not drop remaining.

[devyne]

Right, so only 1 other person is on the fleet when I get home from work. What am I meant to do? Accept that I can't play the game on my server? I'm certain that if I went to another server like Tomb of Ajunta Pall (Eu) There would be more than 20 people on the fleet and I could at least get a warzone or something. I realise that population will decline at night, but it absolutely should not decline to the point where it's impossible to do any sort of multiplayer activity for more than 50% of the day. This will push people out of the game, I know a lot of people have rerolled or simply quit.

 

Frankly I feel bad for the republic on this server...

 

Also reppy have more then imps on shadowrunner this days lol go roll one and find out

[RobCivicCRX]

Re-rolling is not an option I have spent so much time on my toons, legacy 30.

 

I actually got bm before it was easy mode too.

 

When will we hear some actual word from the devs about the SERIOUS population problems. As someone else stated in a persistant online world in an mmorpg there should ALWAYS be someone to play fp's or wz's with and on my server at least 30% of 24h are unplayable.

Edited March 10, 2012 by RobCivicCRX

[MarkMoore]

Quite whining and start playing. I too was on a dead server. Kellian Jarro to be specific. I leveled my very first char up to 50, I did every single quest on every single planet. I was so proud of myself. I finally dinged 50, ignoring the fact that there was like 30 people on fleet at prime time. That nearly every planet I was levelling on had like 5 people on it who didn't even seem to be there. Probably AFK or just pissed off with the situation.

 

Well I got to 50, and there was nothing. No flashpoint group's, no way to recruit any players to guild. It royally sucked. So I started levelling and alt... waiting for the time when more players would come. I got to 43... they never came. And I realised, I was screwed.

 

OMG the game is dead. Oh wait.... Lets have a look at the other servers. Yes, players are migrating to higher populated servers.

 

So I rerolled on Nightmare Lands. Got to 50 again (I won't even try to deny this didn't annoy the hell out of me). Yes indeed there should have been server mergers already. But oh well, transfers are coming eventually.

 

Long story short, I now have a 50 on a populated server where there's nearly 200 on fleet at prime time, loads of people on Illum all willing to help out, and getting a flashpoint group is pretty easy. The ONLY problem I see is that most people are LFG, and not LFM. Basically they're all looking for a group, and not willing to start one. I've seen 6 people all wanting the same thing, and not bothering to group, all waiting for someone else to start the group. If you can get past this and just start one yourself... Its all good.

 

Moral of the story is... if you really want to play this game, stop whining, go re-roll on a populated server and have fun. ************ about it on the forums is not going to solve your problem. I'm now a happy customer. Yes the game may die. Yes a lot of servers are underpopulated and need merging... but until that happens, you have two options... go play something else. Or roll on a populated server and milk it for all the fun you can get.

 

Your one of the players who is obviously happy to do that and from your play style, it sounds like levelling an alt is easy for you and quick.

For me who has been playing since pre-release and my highest char is only level 40 (yes I have a life outside the game as well, so 1 or 2 hours a day was my norm), having to re-roll is not an option, I see that as a cop out by BW. I haven't done every quest on every planet, and increasingly am unable to do so because I cannot solo the 4 man quests. Likewise, cannot get people to do the FP.

I think what saddens me is the utter lack of response or even discussion by BW on this matter, other than to let us carry on venting.

It is sad, but I unsubbed last night and when asked for the reason, the low pop was the reason. I do want to play and will continue to monitor if they are going to do anything about it, but this plus the push back of 1.2 (whihc may or may not have helped me anyway) meant I saw little reason in hanging one

[Touchbass]

Re-rolling is not an option I have spent so much time on my toons, legacy 30.

 

I actually got bm before it was easy mode too.

 

When will we hear some actual word from the devs about the SERIOUS population problems. As someone else stated in a persistant online world in an mmorpg there should ALWAYS be someone to play fp's or wz's with and on my server at least 30% of 24h are unplayable.

 

I'm on a decently populated planet but nobody is doing anything while leveling up anymore. They are either doing PvP battlegrounds or just grinding through the motions on alts.

[Kourage]

I am on a very low pop server too... (Flames of the Crucible EU) Last night (between 5-10pm) the fleet population didn't go higher than 30 from what I saw. Warzone queues take forever, Ilum has always been completely dead... 8 people there at the most. Cross server grouping would help a little, but the economy would still be dead and the fleet would still feel like a ghost town.

 

I don't understand why people are against Bioware doing server merges, why go on and on about how awesomely populated your server is and how we should reroll there? Would it hurt you if the lower pop servers were merged? No! You'd still be on your awesome server, and we would be happy too!

 

Reroll isn't a great solution for those of us on low pop servers... we have characters we've invested time in, guilds and friends. I only rerolled here because queues were horrendous on my early access server and they suggested we should roll to lower pop ones... I wish I hadn't now, but oh well.

 

 

I don't think anyone is against it. Occasionally a troll from a high pop server sticks his head in just to irritate you. The problem is, they can't do a merge till after they figure out how to do transfers.