When will there be a "SERVER MERGE?"

[Drunkenpig]

There are 215 servers including euro and asia pac. They supposedly have 1.7m active subscriptions (no idea how many of those are chinese bots but whatever).

 

That leaves on a perfectly balanced system about 7900ish active subscriptions per server.

 

Assumign ~35% of the active subscriptions log in during prime time (this is actually a pretty fair number if you put some thought into it) you've got just around 2770 people, so 1380ish per side.

 

We're already seeing some servers mentioned as having close to 800 people online at prime time on the fleets if you combine both sides, it's safe to assume a lot more than that are 'everywhere else' which quickly puts servers like Fatman at 1.5-2 times higher population than would be expected if all servers had equal population. This means somewhere out there is a server that is completely unneeded because all it's people are accounted for elsewhere. The pain is spread out though and some servers are much higher than their 'fair share' others are just a bit higher, some are just a bit lower and a number of them are exceptionally low.

 

Those numbers also account for just 'active subscriptions' Assuming 35% of your active subscriptions are online at prime time is a pretty aggressive assumption, how many of you have had an 'active subscription' to a game you hadn't logged into for more than a month or two? I know I have.

 

When we talk about mergers we mean merging the servers that have few players on them. The ones like mine, Naddist Rebels, that never never is full, and usually is light, even on a Sunday afternoon (no fanboy, I am east coast and this supposedly is an east coast server). We dont mean merging together the three servers that are full.

[Photoshop]

Merges could not come fast enough.

[Arlanon]

to the guy in the old post saying im to blame for the many servers being created. not once did i say anything about them needing more servers but instead to raise the cap. I rolled on anchorhead and stayed on anchorhead even with the queues at the beginning

 

I wasn't that guy, but I agree with him.

 

Raising the population cap stifled the growth and expansion of lower population servers, as players who would have had to roll on them were instead able to roll on the higher population ones.

 

So yes it is all your fault, I'm afraid.

[Smoky_the_Bear]

Not sure how many of you have noticed this but:

 

 

 

From 3 to 25..? Seems like a desperate attempt from the no nothings on the board to sort things out without merging.

 

When a game comes out, people usually play it with their friends. I subbed as well as two of my mates. With 3 invites, that allows us to invite 9 other people into the game already. Which is, honestly, more than enough...

 

Now we have the ability to invite a total of 75 people!? How many friends does BW think I have? Let alone how many that would be interested in playing a Star Wars MMO.

 

For guild purposes i think, a lot of guilds move together to a new game then get bored and go back to the old one, i guess this lets people bring their guild from another game into SWTOR for a free trial

[Tempos]

Agreed, this game is loosing people, and its only gonna keep loosing people as server populations continue to diminish. Merging servers/allowing free transfers will let people move to more active places and would do a lot in rejuvenating peoples love for the game.

[Tydfil]

euro server merge would be a good idea, im on frostclaw and it has been dead for weeks

[Jederix]

I was going to give you a proper response until I read this... now I'm certain you're just trolling to stir up some crap.

 

What exactly does merging servers have to do with what you've said here? How does having a larger population to group with, join pvp matches with, trade with on the GTN, or generally socialize with give any power whatsoever to the "top of the food chain"

 

as it stands, on a lower population server once 1 guild gets any moderate amount of success they become 'the' guild and everyone else is just runnin around trying to get scraps. If anything merging eliminates that so your point is absurd. I don't even understand how a top of the chain guild could dictate the playtime of others in any larger community situation.

 

your multiple responses are just an attempt to stir up drama and I'm personally done even reading what you have to sayin this thread, contribute something valid or just ignore the thread, I don't care if its a valid reason to 'not' merge but just spitting bile for no reason is pointless and you do a disservice to the people who are attempting to better the game by expressing how they (people who 'want' to play the game) feel about the current state.

 

He quoted someone talking about Cross Server Flashpoint Finder. I was referring to the whole community garbage being thrown about to try and stop such a thing from coming into play. Had nothing to do with mergers, which I don't consider to destroy a community.

 

They will destroy a games reputation, however. It is not my fault that you and others cannot understand this concept.

[Soullessone]

I wasn't that guy, but I agree with him.

 

Raising the population cap stifled the growth and expansion of lower population servers, as players who would have had to roll on them were instead able to roll on the higher population ones.

 

So yes it is all your fault, I'm afraid.

 

how was asking them to raise the cap a bit on servers at launch my fault. Anchorhead is Light and Standard most of the time, All servers were full at launch and have died off. I am not to blame for any of this fiasco to be honest. Fact of the matter is that they did not account the people that would powerlevel through everything get to 50, have nothing to do and quit before their first month of paid subscription.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Soullessone

[Jederix]

how was asking them to raise the cap a bit on servers at launch my fault. Anchorhead is Light and Standard most of the time, All servers were full at launch and have died off. I am not to blame for any of this fiasco to be honest. Fact of the matter is that they did not account the people that would powerlevel through everything get to 50, have nothing to do and quit before their first month of paid subscription.

 

I think you might be taking "You" a bit literally in this case. It cannot be denied that there was a lot of crying about queue times when the game started. His claim is that these same people, who Bioware created more servers (this is the part where Bioware should have known better; they opened too many servers) to appease, are now complaining that their server is dead when those of us who said to stop complaining about queue times at launch said it would happen.

 

I can see why server mergers appeal to some. Because they are free. They require nothing on your part and don't cost you anything. But they do cost Bioware...it costs them reputation. Few people will fault them for opening too many servers (I believe most other MMOs fell for this same temptation to appease the impatient; Bioware should have learned from their mistakes, honestly). But you cannot deny (well, shouldn't deny, were you rational) that server mergers are bad PR for any game.

 

Just for the record, dissenting opinions are not trolling. So you may consider me trolling for saying mergers aren't coming, but we all know what happens the second they start mergers. The Internet explodes with cries of "SWTOR near death as they begin merging servers." You think any new blood is going to come play a game like that, regardless of how many subs it has. Hell no.

 

If someone can show me some healthy MMOs that merged servers and didn't suffer for it, please do so. I'd love to see which ones they were.

[Jederix]

So the "All the servers but Fatman are dead" threads that are popping up all over the internet are better?

 

Don't want to call it a server merge? Fine. Call it a "population relocation"

 

Seriously, I am so tired of hearing that server mergers would be bad for publicity. You know whats worse then not getting new customers in? Losing the ones you already have.

 

Some customers aren't worth the effort to try and keep.

 

They would be bad for publicity. I know this low pop issue seems dire, and it just might hold a bit more merit, if it weren't the same 20 people crying about it over and over in these threads (yes, it's more than 20, but you know what I mean).

[Photoshop]

Some customers aren't worth the effort to try and keep.

 

They would be bad for publicity. I know this low pop issue seems dire, and it just might hold a bit more merit, if it weren't the same 20 people crying about it over and over in these threads (yes, it's more than 20, but you know what I mean).

 

I am just hoping someone that works on swtor can give us some sort of timeframe on when merges/transfers will begin.

 

If I can move my main off of my dead server, I will pay for another 6 months at least.

[deathlylff]

If we could transfer our characters from these dying servers to a more stable and popular server this problem would be solved. Or a even better option would be to merge serves together for a much higher play base.

PS this is only in reference to my leveling on courageous server... i also am currnelty rolling a new toon on warriors of shadow... which is much better player base!

 

50 shadow "Talmuiriin" courageous

LVLing sith sorcer Morgia warriors of shadow

Edited April 4, 2012 by deathlylff

[Jederix]

I am just hoping someone that works on swtor can give us some sort of timeframe on when merges/transfers will begin.

 

If I can move my main off of my dead server, I will pay for another 6 months at least.

 

I'm sure they are working on it and will let us know as soon as they are available. I can see free transfers for the most dire straits servers in regards to population, and paid transfers for everyone else. The cons of server mergers are just too high and it waves the white flag of defeat to anyone considering playing the game, turning them away.

 

Its funny, I saw a post yesterday asking for server mergers because the guy was mad that there was a queue on The Fatman server now; the very same cries that got the game into this mess in the first place. If it weren't so sad, it'd almost be comical.

[Kurfer]

The arrogance of these horrible developers, man do I loathe these people...I seriously *********** hate them.

 

How about a single *********** word Mr. James Ohlen...you are failing!

Edited April 4, 2012 by Kurfer

[Bazarov]

I have to agree with poster above... a single *********** word would help. Just acknowledging the issue would help put people at ease. Hell , even a "Soon" would be better than the complete silence from the Devs.

[Nakazia]

Some customers aren't worth the effort to try and keep.

 

They would be bad for publicity. I know this low pop issue seems dire, and it just might hold a bit more merit, if it weren't the same 20 people crying about it over and over in these threads (yes, it's more than 20, but you know what I mean).

 

I think you're underestimating the value of the people who are on servers affected by this.

 

Go to the server page and LOOK at how many light servers there are. Mine's one of them, it's a server I chose in early game access. There is no reason that One server The Fatman is Heavy, and a handful more are sitting at standard.... but the majority are light.

[Kiphere]

I've personally got a lot of stuff I still wanna do. gonna level up a jedi knight and sage post 1.2, still need to cap 3 of the craft skills and I wanna see how ranked PVP pans out.

 

Problem for me is once I level up those two alts I'll have my tradeskills maxed and if i log in for an hour and spend the entire time running circles around the fleet waiting on a Q I'm gonna log off. That happens too many times and I'm gonna find something else to do with my gametime. That situation is going to happen to a lot of people if they don't fix this population issue, why log in if you can't do anything productive in the time you have to play? Why pay if you're not logging in anymore...

 

It's a MMO the single player story can only support it so long, we 'need' people to play the game and we aint getting a heavy influx of new people no matter how many friends we get to invite so they need to work with what they got before they lose it.

[Tenceriker]

I'm sure they are working on it and will let us know as soon as they are available. I can see free transfers for the most dire straits servers in regards to population, and paid transfers for everyone else. The cons of server mergers are just too high and it waves the white flag of defeat to anyone considering playing the game, turning them away.

 

Its funny, I saw a post yesterday asking for server mergers because the guy was mad that there was a queue on The Fatman server now; the very same cries that got the game into this mess in the first place. If it weren't so sad, it'd almost be comical.

 

No it signals your team has reason and you aren't under the delusion you are the next WoW. Player's happiness should come before pride. The only defeat is the constand denial by many of the players here against the inevitable which is that the game has dead and dying severs which need merges and transfer. I am not saying to allow 1 per month like Rift but give people on all but the 3 or 4 heavy full sever the chance to find a new home with all the characters they have devoted time to.

[nosmos]

Why won't they respond to this issue? It is really starting to piss me off and I love the game and have played so many hours of it.

 

On my latest 50, my fourth 50, an assassin I decided to grind to battlemaster...I am valour 56 now and guess what - I have to look forward to the grind to battle with basically nothing but gosh darned hutt ball because our server is LIGHT 24/7.

 

MERGE THEM, it's more important then fluffy legacy. Besides who on these servers is going to want to take advantage of the legacy system. I know there's no way im rolling another alt on planets with 7 people on them.

 

EDIT: I put something else besides Gosh Darned but apparently it changed it for me. How about "F$($CKING HUTTBALL"

Edited April 4, 2012 by nosmos

[TheSeventhJedi]

This morning - I know, not peak time - 8 on the fleet. 7 on Belsavis. 2 in guild. I'd prefer a merge to a transfer, because my guildies who are still playing are great to play with, but if it's got to be transfers - please allow us to move our entire Legacy. And please, do it soon.

[viewtifuldee]

I'm sure they are working on it and will let us know as soon as they are available. I can see free transfers for the most dire straits servers in regards to population, and paid transfers for everyone else. The cons of server mergers are just too high and it waves the white flag of defeat to anyone considering playing the game, turning them away.

 

Its funny, I saw a post yesterday asking for server mergers because the guy was mad that there was a queue on The Fatman server now; the very same cries that got the game into this mess in the first place. If it weren't so sad, it'd almost be comical.

 

You know, I'd LOVE to see a queue right about now.

[Frostvein]

Some customers aren't worth the effort to try and keep.

 

They would be bad for publicity. I know this low pop issue seems dire, and it just might hold a bit more merit, if it weren't the same 20 people crying about it over and over in these threads (yes, it's more than 20, but you know what I mean).

 

Its a lot more then you think.

[Vlacke]

You know, I'd LOVE to see a queue right about now.

 

I see queues on my server ToFN on regular basis recently, new people are coming and it looks like plenty of people have re rolled there.

[Kthx]

Its a lot more then you think.

 

But it's a small fraction of the subscription base.

[Kthx]

I am just hoping someone that works on swtor can give us some sort of timeframe on when merges/transfers will begin.

 

They have. The goal is to provide character transfers in late April for Asian servers; later for other regions. They have also stated that server mergers are very unlikely.

Edited April 5, 2012 by Kthx