Server population is dropping...

[karjohn]

I love the game but after 2 months on lvl50 i am very bored.with diablo 3 coming next month its very difficult to resub.

[Baravelrus]

I think that for right now, bioware should put a lock on people rerolling on the fatman server. It is absolutely ridiculous that the server population is very heavy or full at even 3 or 4 AM, despite it being an east coast server. Fact is, even if bioware gets a ton of new subscribers, they will log on for the first time, and see The Fatman as a beacon among all of the standard population servers, and automatically roll there.

 

Nothing good can come of this. All it will do is swell the population even more, causing unnecessary lag, and kill every other server in the process. Heck, you might as well just delete every other server except the Fatman right now, coz six months down the road, that will be the essential result. WoW servers have repeatedly increased their player limits over the years, and as a result we have the legendary illidan server, with over 33K players.

 

So, what will happen? Fatman will get full, BW will raise population cap, more people will be attracted to the "only heavy pop server in the game". Fatman will get full again, etc, etc, and so forth.

[tloops]

yur crazay. populaitons have increased dramticly. atleast 2milon subs rite now.

 

git out of hare you loser doom and gloomre!!11!

 

what are you smoking? 75% of servers are lightly populated...the only new subs they are getting are from asia/australia because the game just launched there...north american servers are drying up fast!

[tloops]

look at this if ya dont believe me http://www.torstatus.net/ hit the north american tab and population trends...only 1% are heavy or full..where as between 50 and 75% are lightly populated...thats horrible Edited April 7, 2012 by tloops

[Valkirus]

look at this if ya dont believe me http://www.torstatus.net/

 

You are going to confuse them with the facts. The great majority of the servers are light to standard.

[tloops]

You are going to confuse them with the facts. The great majority of the servers are light to standard.

 

confused or not the reality is that in north america and europe,this game is in trouble,and the lucky few who are on a good server should check the facts before spouting thier mouths off:mad:

[Valkirus]

My fleet has gone from 200 primetime to 40 primetime.

 

It starts with the hardcores leaving. They are the major players in the guilds, so guilds crumble and leave for old mmos.

 

More and more guilds realize the lack of endgame content, decide to roll alts, get bored, unsub.

 

Communities are shattered.

 

What's left is casuals and those who earnestly like the game and want to see it succeed (like me), who finally start leaving the game because there is no MMO left.

 

My advice is this: make server mergers/transfer a NUMBER ONE priority, lest you fail to salvage what is left of this game.

 

I really want to see the new Sub numbers right now.

 

I donot agree with this. The hardcore players make up a minority of any MMO. It is the casuals who make up the majority. And it is them who are leaving because after you get over the glamor of the early stages of the game, they find themselves at level 50 and no way to experence the end game content. Merging servers will not solve this. But a cross server LFG tool would help a lot without any need to merge servers.

[tloops]

I donot agree with this. The hardcore players make up a minority of any MMO. It is the casuals who make up the majority. And it is them who are leaving because after you get over the glamor of the early stages of the game, they find themselves at level 50 and no way to experence the end game content. Merging servers will not solve this. But a cross server LFG tool would help a lot without any need to merge servers.

 

a lfg tool may help some,but for example my server,i cant even get a 4 man group for a heroic together...alderan right this moment has 2 people on it,and is like that on all the planets on my server,and i suspect alot of other servers are in the same boat. for me its not all about the end game,id like to do the regular leveling also,and just maybee some pvp,which is near impossible at this point.

[Cromagnum]

If it wasn't for the fact that I now view the game as a 2 player KOTOR i can play with my wife I would have cancelled my sub already. It's a shame but without a decent population there just isn't a community. I'm on Peragus Mining Facility EU and I think there were about 35 people on the republic fleet at 8pm... this is insane.

 

my suggestion (for what its worth)...

 

Work out what the maximum stable population would be for each server at peak times. Take 75% of that as a target figure to allow for growth and then merge servers using their peak populations to work towards the target 75%. That way you get a bunch of full servers not 100s of servers populated with nothing but tumbleweed and Rakghouls.

 

It'll never happen though, Developer Pride just won't allow it

 

I agree with you completely. However, BioWare has already stated they won't do anything with transfers until 1.2 is out. This is because 1.2 cleans up the Legacy system. After they will be able to start working on transfers. If they didn't do 1.2 first, the transfers system would have to be rebuilt after 1.2 to accommodate the Legacy system. So its a matter of BioWare not wanting to waste resources. What people don't realize is that the game is 3 and a half months old. The games it's compared to (WOW, EVE, ect) are far older and have been cleaned up. I'm no old timer but I've been part of a few launches. All of those games were just as "junked up" as this one. The game will get smoothed out and BioWare is doing it pretty quickly (weekly updates).

[Valkirus]

a lfg tool may help some,but for example my server,i cant even get a 4 man group for a heroic together...alderan right this moment has 2 people on it,and is like that on all the planets on my server,and i suspect alot of other servers are in the same boat. for me its not all about the end game,id like to do the regular leveling also,and just maybee some pvp,which is near impossible at this point.

 

But you see....a cross server LFG tool would look at all the servers and select those who are interested in doing a 4 man heroic which you have selected and then make up the group. It is not limited to the size of a single server, but only limited by the total number of players on ALL the servers. Makes for a rather large pool to make up groups from. And by the way, a cross server LFG is in the works for PVP warfronts. BioWare needs to see the logic of that and expand it to PVE content also.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Valkirus

[Tahana]

But you see....a cross server LFG tool would look at all the servers and select those who are interested in doing a 4 man heroic which you have selected and then make up the group. It is not limited to the size of a single server, but only limited by the total number of players on ALL the servers. Makes for a rather large pool to make up groups from. And by the way, a cross server LFG is in the works for PVP warfronts. BioWare needs to see the logic of that and expand it to PVE content also.

 

So pray tell how do you think they are going to implement a x-server lfg for a 4 man heroic. A good share of them are out in the open and not even instanced. EVERY LFG that i have seen has only worked because the zone was instanced and 'teleported' you to the instance server..

 

This new LFG you want going to teleport you to Fatman? Or are you suggesting that they add even 'more' loading screens into this game?

[Valkirus]

So pray tell how do you think they are going to implement a x-server lfg for a 4 man heroic. A good share of them are out in the open and not even instanced. EVERY LFG that i have seen has only worked because the zone was instanced and 'teleported' you to the instance server..

 

This new LFG you want going to teleport you to Fatman? Or are you suggesting that they add even 'more' loading screens into this game?

 

They are adding a LFG tool for PVE, cross server only for PVP Warfronts . I am assuming it would work like it does now for 5 man dungeons in WOW. That is ports you instantly to the dungeon instance. For outside 4 man heroics...they could show you as having a group for it ( after you qued up for it ) and a icon you click to be ported to that area. Not that hard to do really, for the same server that is.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Valkirus

[Azumio]

Outside Heroics will be renamed AREA Quests.

[Tahana]

Outside Heroics will be renamed AREA Quests.

 

Then what is the purpose.. I'll still be in chat going LFG N2M [AREA]

[Azumio]

Then what is the purpose.. I'll still be in chat going LFG N2M [AREA]

 

Area quests will be Same-Server.

HEROIC Quests will be Cross-Server Enabled.

[Socialist]

After Diablo 3 launches, my server will be so empty that I'll feel like I'm playing kotor.

[Incendergel]

Couple issues with the LFG tool.

 

First - there has to be someone or something to look for Sadly this won't help a majority of the servers unless they go cross-server for both PvE and PvP.

 

Secondly - it won't help with side quests or some of the datacrons.

 

Thirdly - it won't help with the main thing we play MMO's for - the social aspect of it. Leveling zones, planets in general, or even the fleets need people to make the game feel real. It is difficult enough with the shard system they put in play, don't make it worse.

 

Lastly - you need a economy. The lower populated servers "ALONG" with the faction imbalance make it damn near impossible to find crafting materials or items to purchase. So here it is in a nutshell.

 

No one to talk to other than Elvis. Things you see are the same old scripted NPC's and what not. Warzones take forever. If they do start chances are it is a instant loss for the side who doesn't fill. Can't do any form of raiding. Crafting or purchasable items on the trading posts are far and few between. No one to hear you scream or ask for help.

 

Furthermore there is no conflict Two factions, ghost town of a server, no reason to do much of anything. Thus people moving to the fuller servers who have time left or willing to leave things behind. Face it. BioWare messed up in placing the patch 1.2 ahead of server merging.

 

It was a boneheaded move. No one wants to hear someone say their baby is ugly. But I'm pretty sure in this case we are correct. The baby is ugly.

[Socialist]

Couple issues with the LFG tool.

 

First - there has to be someone or something to look for Sadly this won't help a majority of the servers unless they go cross-server for both PvE and PvP.

 

Secondly - it won't help with side quests or some of the datacrons.

 

Thirdly - it won't help with the main thing we play MMO's for - the social aspect of it. Leveling zones, planets in general, or even the fleets need people to make the game feel real. It is difficult enough with the shard system they put in play, don't make it worse.

 

Lastly - you need a economy. The lower populated servers "ALONG" with the faction imbalance make it damn near impossible to find crafting materials or items to purchase. So here it is in a nutshell.

 

No one to talk to other than Elvis. Things you see are the same old scripted NPC's and what not. Warzones take forever. If they do start chances are it is a instant loss for the side who doesn't fill. Can't do any form of raiding. Crafting or purchasable items on the trading posts are far and few between. No one to hear you scream or ask for help.

 

Furthermore there is no conflict Two factions, ghost town of a server, no reason to do much of anything. Thus people moving to the fuller servers who have time left or willing to leave things behind. Face it. BioWare messed up in placing the patch 1.2 ahead of server merging.

 

It was a boneheaded move. No one wants to hear someone say their baby is ugly. But I'm pretty sure in this case we are correct. The baby is ugly.

 

 

Quite valid arguments, however too much sensationalism.

 

C'mon, 'the baby is ugly'? Who are you? O'Reilly?

 

 

Indeed, I do wholeheartedly believe that such move was a madcap's folly. But what is done is, well, done. No point in bashing the past, look to future we must. BW, let's merge those servers asap.

[Kthx]

look at this if ya dont believe me http://www.torstatus.net/ hit the north american tab and population trends...only 1% are heavy or full..where as between 50 and 75% are lightly populated...thats horrible

 

Just looked, Saturday, 8 pm edt, and pulled the results into Excel:

 

11.4% Very Heavy or Heavy

62.6% Standard

26.0% Light

 

Of course, the new line of the complainers is that Standard = dead.

[Frostvein]

 

Of course, the new line of the complainers is that Standard = dead.

 

Standard can be as low as 350 people total. Are you going to tell me that's enough for a healthy server?

[NotDonnaReed]

Just looked, Saturday, 8 pm edt, and pulled the results into Excel:

 

11.4% Very Heavy or Heavy

62.6% Standard

26.0% Light

 

Of course, the new line of the complainers is that Standard = dead.

 

Standard can be a healthy population, but the parameters for Standard are too broad. Casting that aside, don't you think it's a shame that 26% of the subscribers can't fully enjoy the game right now?

 

I broached the topic of changing servers to my guild yesterday, because our server rarely has more than 250 people. The vast majority of them said they don't want to abandon their characters and/or don't have time to start over on a new server. Many of them said they would rather unsubscribe than re-roll. Given the fact that BioWare is below target on subscriptions anyway, it seems foolish to alienate customers.

[Gungan]

Standard can be a healthy population, but the parameters for Standard are too broad. Casting that aside, don't you think it's a shame that 26% of the subscribers can't fully enjoy the game right now?

 

I broached the topic of changing servers to my guild yesterday, because our server rarely has more than 250 people. The vast majority of them said they don't want to abandon their characters and/or don't have time to start over on a new server. Many of them said they would rather unsubscribe than re-roll. Given the fact that BioWare is below target on subscriptions anyway, it seems foolish to alienate customers.

 

Standard is apparently 50 people on fleet at primetime.

Edited April 8, 2012 by Gungan

[Baravelrus]

Yeah, the actual population range for "standard is incredibly deceptive. You can have like 200 people on the server and have it read "standard" or you can have like 800 and still have it read "standard". My original server is practically dead, less than 60 people online on fleet even at primetime, and I have NEVER seen the population go light, except late at night.

[HKDeath]

To me this change

 

"Warzones no longer end early due to differing team populations."

 

looks like an admission of failure. As in "We realize not many people are playing our game anymore less than 6 months after launch and that some of you cannot get a warzone match on your empty servers. So since we have failed to add cross server queing this is the best we can do for you. And we realize that our best isn't good enough".

[Kthx]

Standard can be as low as 350 people total. Are you going to tell me that's enough for a healthy server?

 

I don't make presumptions, but I do know that you have no way of knowing how many people are on those servers. All I'm saying is that the data on torstatus does not support your case one way or another.