Server population is dropping...

[OllehEybdoog]

I vote mergers. With merges, we get rid of a lot of servers through combination which actually helps fix the problem for a majority of people. In most cases they'd have to merge at least 5 servers to get above standard population (somehow single digits on fleet and dk/coruscant is considered standard), but as long as they merge like servers (pve/pvp/rp/rppvp) it shouldn't be a problem for most people.

 

Transfers don't get rid of servers so it doesn't fix the problem and in fact causes many more problems as the populations will just decline even more on low pop and create even longer queues to play on high pop servers.

 

Once they've removed at least half the servers, then maybe go to paid transfers, but free transfers will cause more problems than they fix.

[Underverce]

I was in one of the first waves of early access. Started on Sith Meditation Sphere. By Christmas the server was so dead I left for a while. Came back around 6 or 7 weeks ago to give this a second chance. By the end of the first day back I was re-rolling on Harbinger. 17 people at fleet during prime time.

 

It's hard to re-roll when you have a 50, several mid-30s, and multiple 20s. Not even paid server xfers available. All those useless credits and tradeskills. But more importantly the time involved and connection to your toons.

 

Harbinger, even with it's high population, still has the same issues as the dead servers. After 25 no one wants to do anything other than solo quests. There is no reason to. Nothing special or exciting for completing the FPs. No achievements. Regular quests give comms so why do the heroics? Looked all day thu, fri, sat for foundry and never even got half a group together. And now every moron and retard on the server is standing at the port-in point on fleet causing lag and infecting everyone coming in. I personally don't want a damn thing to do with the rakghoul plague. How about working on making multi-player content that people actually feel they NEED to do. Make comms ONLY drop from heroic quests and areas. Something. Right now this is a single player game, not an MMO.

 

Why pay a sub to play alone?

 

Give away all the free game time you want, doesn't change the fact that this game lacks all the elements that make an MMO an MMO. It's massive and online but it just isn't multi-player. Haven't seen a heroic since pre-Alderaan and half way done with Hoth on my main on my new server. The 'populated' one. Now I have to re-equip 4 pieces of my companions gear every time I zone or re-summon. Behind the scenes nerfs have made me and my companions much less effective than they already were, and Kaliyo was already bad as a tank.

 

It's really whatever at this point. Bioware may lead the industry with it's single player games, but they just have no clue where to even start with MMOs. (I say this, yet ME3 and DA2 were both enormous disappointments.) I think it all comes back to the human equation, though. Most people want instant gratification and to be handed everything. If they die to anything, mob or boss, it's all "it's too hard!!!!!! *sniff*." 6 or 7 years ago these same people were not even considered part of the gaming community. One more thing to thank Blizzard and the common idiot for.

Edited April 21, 2012 by LexiCazam
Inappropriate content

[Beyzend]

I play on Harbinger all I can say is that my experience has been great. I'm around lvl 30 and I never had any problems grouping for heroics.

[DarthBastila]

I play on a very low pop server in WoW...yet when I log on in the afternoon there are well over 100 level 85's in Stormwind. Lucky to see 20 on my server and it was a launch one that had to deal with wait times. It's pretty deflating.

 

I'd be completely for leveling my alts on Swiftsure or The Fatman (the only two servers that seem to consistently be above a light load) but thanks to Legacy there's absolutely no benefit in doing so.

 

...I'm also not going to pay $200 in cash to transfer all of my characters to a server with a moderately healthy population a mere four months after launch and over $200 already spent on a 6 month sub and CE.

Edited April 16, 2012 by DarthBastila

[Andryah]

Transfers don't get rid of servers so it doesn't fix the problem and in fact causes many more problems as the populations will just decline even more on low pop and create even longer queues to play on high pop servers.

 

I disagree. MERGERS ARE BAD because they take all control and freedom of choice away from the players.

 

I gather you never played Rift, so let's explore that as a recent case of how to do it in a modern MMO:

 

In Rift, they opened up free transfers (but not to very high pop servers). People moved around at their pleasure. Trion then targeted low pop servers and told players to migrate off of them by xyz date. Once xyz date passed, they locked the servers to any traffic other then to log on and transfer off. Rinse and repeat......Trion has done this incrementally and repeatedly over time as their populations moved/declined. And almost everyone who plays/played that game is fine with that approach.

 

The Trion approach is mature, thoughtful, and gives the players the most control over where they locate characters. I would bet that Bioware follows a similar approach once they open up server transfers.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Andryah

[Remerik]

Please give us server transfers or merges. pls pls pls. preferably merges though as i like my guild

[Andryah]

Why pay a sub to play alone?

 

Give away all the free game time you want, doesn't change the fact that this game lacks all the elements that make an MMO an MMO. It's massive and online but it just isn't multi-player. Haven't seen a heroic since pre-Alderaan and half way done with Hoth on my main on my new server. The 'populated' one. Now I have to re-equip 4 pieces of my companions gear every time I zone or re-summon. Behind the scenes nerfs have made me and my companions much less effective than they already were, and Kaliyo was already bad as a tank.

 

It's really whatever at this point. Bioware may lead the industry with it's single player games, but they just have no clue where to even start with MMOs. (I say this, yet ME3 and DA2 were both enormous disappointments.) I think it all comes back to the human equation, though. Most people want instant gratification and to be handed everything. If they die to anything, mob or boss, it's all "it's too hard!!!!!! *sniff*." 6 or 7 years ago these same people were not even considered part of the gaming community. One more thing to thank Blizzard and the common idiot for.

You are entitled to your view, as I am entitled to disagree with it.

 

I disagree with your view of the game, but I wish you well in finding a game that meets your particular requirements.

Edited April 21, 2012 by LexiCazam
IC - quote

[Andryah]

Let's say instead of 100 servers you had like 20 and an xfer feature.

 

All 20 servers would have 5 hour queues at prime time every day.

 

Not going to work.

 

They just need to follow the Rift Model:

 

Open free character transfers

Then

1) close the full servers to any transfers on

2) issue vacate notices to players still on servers with very low populations at prime time

3) close the very low population servers after the vacate notice expires (except to log in to transfer off)

4) rinse and repeat over time, as needed, (reopen closed low pop servers later on if more space is needed for the total game population).

 

Trion has proven the above model works with a dynamically changing population over a period of the last 9 months. No reason not to do it this way, or something very similar.

[Kthx]

Seriously, I am getting so tired of repeating myself.

Standard doesn't mean jack. Zero. Squat. Nada. Zilch.

~350 players on a server, total (thats right kiddies, 350 when you add up both sides) is all that is required for a "standard" ranking.

 

Repeating bad information doesn't make the information good. You present no evidence that 350 players combined triggers a load rating of Standard, and even if you did, you have no information whatsoever on the distribution of concurrent players among the servers rated Standard.

 

1.2 brought some more people back. Hooray. Overall server pop still only climbed a bit higher.

 

By making statements that are not backed by any evidence and by calling your co-players "kiddies" you only undermine your own credibility. If you have any evidence that 1.2 only resulted in a minor population increase, please share it.

[GalacticKegger]

"Are server merges a possible solution? Absolutely. Are character transfers a possible solution? They’re a definite solution and we’re going after that first. But all things are on the table. Our entire goal is to make sure that players are playing in the environment they want to, with the type of community and the size of population they want, and we are driving towards all of that." ~ Lead Designer Daniel Erickson

 

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1324496/swtor_bioware_reponds_to_criticism_server_merges_still_possible.html

Edited April 18, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[Drunkenpig]

Repeating bad information doesn't make the information good. You present no evidence that 350 players combined triggers a load rating of Standard, and even if you did, you have no information whatsoever on the distribution of concurrent players among the servers rated Standard.

 

 

 

By making statements that are not backed by any evidence and by calling your co-players "kiddies" you only undermine your own credibility. If you have any evidence that 1.2 only resulted in a minor population increase, please share it.

 

Here's a fact: Last night Naddist Rebels was rated "standard". For over an hour at prime time (8 pm), the population on Voss was FOUR. Before then, I had been on Belsavis. At "standard" it was EIGHT.

At those levels it is not possible to do a four man. And forget any open world pvp. It is possible, but rare. Sort of like getting a rare drop from a mob. All people do now is hang around fleet to do some warzones. Whoopie. Hutball for the five hundreth (or more) time. So multiplayer is the warzone, and otherwise it is solo RPG. A merger is needed and it would fix these problems. To state otherwise is to show complete denial or lack of understanding.

As for transfers, they would have to be unlimited and free, otherwise you might make the mistake of picking a server that you thought was going to be populated, but the people there left it. And your friends will be split up and you will never see them again, unless you coordinate the transfers in advance. Good luck with that.

[Gaxar]

well regardless of factual numbers regarding the state of all servers, my entire guid of 20+ quit this week, completely disillusioned with whats going on in this game.

 

the pulling of rated warzones (however right the decision may be) was the final nail which would have kept them playing. As such we've all pre ordered Tera to give that a go until GW2 and TSW world come out.

 

Its sad really, all our hopes for the 2 years we were following this game up to launch and it lasted us not even 4 months (cleared everything NMM 2 months ago).

 

Personally i hope we give it another go in 6 months when maybe BW have un****ed themsleves but by that time we will have played these other games and may not be willing to move back en masse.

 

i alone renewed for another month as i am still enjoying levelling my 6th 50, a consular but i cant see that lasting much longer. Anyway, i hope the server population situation is sorted for you guys but this has got to go down as the most eagerly anticipated flop in MMO history.

[Frostvein]

I'm actually of the school of thought population per server increased with 1.2 - but the impact was insignificant on many servers. At the high end population ones, you didn't notice, and on the low end you didn't either. The middle servers probably enjoyed the biggest improvement overall, and I'm happy for them. I just don't see this lasting.

 

But really, when you can /who everyone on your server and the count is under 200 per side, then yea, that just simply isn't enough and server mergers are going to be needed.

[Photoshop]

Everyone that complains about their "dead server" just needs to reroll to The Fatman. I have yet to see a planet on Fatman with less than 50 people during off-peak and less than 80 during on-peak.

[Kthx]

Here's a fact: Last night Naddist Rebels was rated "standard". For over an hour at prime time (8 pm), the population on Voss was FOUR. Before then, I had been on Belsavis. At "standard" it was EIGHT.

 

How does this prove that the population of Standard means less than 350? It is just as likely that a large section of players were on Tatooine for the world event. Moreover, even if it is true that your server population is low, how does this prove that a significant subset of servers rated as Standard have the same problem? Answer: It doesn't.

 

Btw, even on my server (Standard with a very healthy population), the number of players on Voss tends to be low. This is because of where it occurs in the class quest chain.

 

Let us know what the population on Naddist Rebels is tonight on Tatooine at 8 p.m. At least that has some relevance to the case you are trying to make.

 

Somehow those of you who are trying to make the connection that "low server populations = game is dying" seem to think that those of us who enjoy the game are too daft to be able to review, understand, and interpret data. Making up evidence and misconstruing facts does not strenghten your case.

 

To state otherwise is to show complete denial or lack of understanding.

 

Throwing around insults and generalizations also does not strengthen your case – quite the opposite.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Kthx

[MeshuggahRift]

Everyone that complains about their "dead server" just needs to reroll to The Fatman. I have yet to see a planet on Fatman with less than 50 people during off-peak and less than 80 during on-peak.

 

You make re-rolling sound like its a viable option for us with lives/families/children.

[Drunkenpig]

How does this prove that the population of Standard means less than 350? It is just as likely that a large section of players were on Tatooine for the world event. Moreover, even if it is true that your server population is low, how does this prove that a significant subset of servers rated as Standard have the same problem? Answer: It doesn't.

 

Btw, even on my server (Standard with a very healthy population), the number of players on Voss tends to be low. This is because of where it occurs in the class quest chain.

 

Let us know what the population on Naddist Rebels is tonight on Tatooine at 8 p.m. At least that has some relevance to the case you are trying to make.

 

Somehow those of you who are trying to make the connection that "low server populations = game is dying" seem to think that those of us who enjoy the game are too daft to be able to review, understand, and interpret data. Making up evidence and misconstruing facts does not strenghten your case.

 

 

 

Throwing around insults and generalizations also does not strengthen your case – quite the opposite.

 

I went to Tatooine last night too. Population there was about 20. Wow.

Have you ever played are real MassiveMO? Do you know how it is supposed to work? I think not. Here, let me explain it to you: If BW sets up a system so that a planet is isolated and a PITA to get to from other planets, and then establishes multiplayer quests, and then sets up servers so that the populations on half the planets even at peak hours are in the range of 3 to 15, there will be almost no multiplayer activity, and next to zero owpvp.

So quit being such a blatant fanboy. There is a population problem in the vast majority of servers.

The fact that you like solo RPG games does mean that SWTOR is ok. It isn't. It was meant to be an MMO. It isn't.

End of story.

[Drunkenpig]

You make re-rolling sound like its a viable option for us with lives/families/children.

Yep. Your really have to wonder about people who think that rerolling to Fatman is a good fix...

[Photoshop]

You make re-rolling sound like its a viable option for us with lives/families/children.

 

I have a life/house/mortgage/full-time/wife job and a level 50 on a "dead server". I rerolled to The Fatman and have been enjoying the party ever since This game has been the easiest leveling mmo I have ever played.

[rakuenCallisto]

Port nowhere !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Back please xd

 

I'm on Port Nowhere as well and even though it's above "Standard", it always feels kind of dead, unless it's prime time weekends.

 

Edit: Example - Last night I was on at 8:30 EST on Port Nowhere (prime time for any timezone) and the population on Hoth was 3... 3 people and I was one of them.

 

I port back to the fleet - guess how much? 38 prime time. This is getting unbelievable.

Edited April 18, 2012 by rakuenCallisto

[Kthx]

I went to Tatooine last night too. Population there was about 20.

 

Given your penchant for baseless personal attacks, in your particular case I elect not to believe that your server had 20 players on Tatooine during a time when the server also had a Standard population (which is what we are discussing).

 

Have you ever played are real MassiveMO? Do you know how it is supposed to work?

 

More personal attacks. I have played plenty of MMOs, starting in 1999.

 

If BW sets up a system so that a planet is isolated and a PITA to get to from other planets, and then establishes multiplayer quests, and then sets up servers so that the populations on half the planets even at peak hours are in the range of 3 to 15, there will be almost no multiplayer activity, and next to zero owpvp.

 

BioWare has announced server transfers (the Asian-Pacific ones just rolled out), so I'm not even sure what it is you are complaining about, other than complaining for the sake of complaining. We get that you are unhappy. But that doesn't mean the game is dying or that others don't enjoy the game.

 

So quit being such a blatant fanboy.

 

More personal attacks. You found someone who doesn't agree with your view and who challenges the evidence you present, and the only thing you can do is resort to name calling. I am really curious what you think you will accomplish by this, other than expose yourself as a poor debater.

 

There is a population problem in the vast majority of servers.

 

You have provided exactly zero evidence to support that there is population problem in the vast majority of servers. Right now, the vast majority of servers average at Standard, Heavy, or Very Heavy with only 29% listing as Light, according to torstatus.net. In order to prove that the "vast majority of servers" have a "population problem" you would first need to define what "population problem" means, and then demonstrate that the majority of servers with a load of Standard fall under your defined threshold. You have done nothing of the sort. You have provided anecdotal evidence from one server, which, in my opinion based on your inability to remain civil, is evidence of questionable reputability. "Vast majority" does not mean "some" or "a few". It means "many more than 50%". I'd settle for you proving that 70% of servers have a population problem.

 

The fact that you like solo RPG games does mean that SWTOR is ok. It isn't. It was meant to be an MMO. It isn't.

 

I enjoy solo RPGs and I enjoy multiplayer RPGs and I enjoy MMO RPGs. I have no problems finding groups. I play on a server with a standard load and am a member of a fantastic guild of active, mostly older players.

 

So, my anecdotal evidence cancels out your anecdotal evidence. Your move.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Kthx

[MeshuggahRift]

I have a life/house/mortgage/full-time/wife job and a level 50 on a "dead server". I rerolled to The Fatman and have been enjoying the party ever since This game has been the easiest leveling mmo I have ever played.

 

I have all those as well minus the mortgage.

Having a child with Autism. Get one of those and tell me you have the time to roll 2 toons. I have afull BM almost WH sorc on Kinrath and everyone on the server hates life. Rolling a 2nd toon to that same level on a completely diff server, with no funds to transfer to that new toon etc... is VERY demotivating for someone like me. Grats on all that bud, but you still failed to mention that you have a child that depends on your attention. That alone makes leveling more than one toon a task and a half.

 

I've unsubbed. I'm riding out the free play time they gave us but if I dont see anything in that time, then I've already made the best decision I have so far since I started the game.

Edited April 18, 2012 by MeshuggahRift

[Drunkenpig]

I'm on Port Nowhere as well and even though it's above "Standard", it always feels kind of dead, unless it's prime time weekends.

 

Edit: Example - Last night I was on at 8:30 EST on Port Nowhere (prime time for any timezone) and the population on Hoth was 3... 3 people and I was one of them.

 

I port back to the fleet - guess how much? 38 prime time. This is getting unbelievable.

Lets take the sagacious advice of some of the BW defenders: There is no problem with server populations. Everyone just stop playing your character on all but 2 or 3 servers and create new characters on those 2 or 3. Problem solved. Now for those of you unlucky enough to have been playing for the past several months on those 2 or 3 servers, well tough luck. It is only a game. So what if you spent a lot of time developing crafting skills and increasing your legacy. Just play nonstop for the next month and you will be ok. Yes, you might have reverse engineered all of the designs for all arms, or armor, etc., and it took you four months to do it, but be like that guy who re-rolled (and allegedly has a life), and just redo the same thing, again. From scratch. Same thing for reobtaining your level 30 legacy. Just do it all over. Because it is too much trouble for BW to do a merger.

See, there is no need for BW to do a server merger. We can do it ourselves, by depopulating all but the 2 or 3 selected servers that we will play on, and rerolling starting over.

[rakuenCallisto]

Lets take the sagacious advice of some of the BW defenders: There is no problem with server populations. Everyone just stop playing your character on all but 2 or 3 servers and create new characters on those 2 or 3. Problem solved. Now for those of you unlucky enough to have been playing for the past several months on those 2 or 3 servers, well tough luck. It is only a game. So what if you spent a lot of time developing crafting skills and increasing your legacy. Just play nonstop for the next month and you will be ok. Yes, you might have reverse engineered all of the designs for all arms, or armor, etc., and it took you four months to do it, but be like that guy who re-rolled (and allegedly has a life), and just redo the same thing, again. From scratch. Same thing for reobtaining your level 30 legacy. Just do it all over. Because it is too much trouble for BW to do a merger.

See, there is no need for BW to do a server merger. We can do it ourselves, by depopulating all but the 2 or 3 selected servers that we will play on, and rerolling starting over.

 

You sir, are a beacon of light in these dark times.

[Drunkenpig]

Given your penchant for baseless personal attacks, in your particular case I elect not to believe that your server had 20 players on Tatooine during a time when the server also had a Standard population (which is what we are discussing).

 

 

 

More personal attacks. I have played plenty of MMOs, starting in 1999.

 

 

 

BioWare has announced server transfers (the Asian-Pacific ones just rolled out), so I'm not even sure what it is you are complaining about, other than complaining for the sake of complaining. We get that you are unhappy. But that doesn't mean the game is dying or that others don't enjoy the game.

 

 

 

More personal attacks. You found someone who doesn't agree with your view and who challenges the evidence you present, and the only thing you can do is resort to name calling. I am really curious what you think you will accomplish by this, other than expose yourself as a poor debater.

 

 

 

You have provided exactly zero evidence to support that there is population problem in the vast majority of servers. Right now, the vast majority of servers average at Standard, Heavy, or Very Heavy with only 29% listing as Light, according to torstatus.net. In order to prove that the "vast majority of servers" have a "population problem" you would first need to define what "population problem" means, and then demonstrate that the majority of servers with a load of Standard fall under your defined threshold. You have done nothing of the sort. You have provided anecdotal evidence from one server, which, in my opinion based on your inability to remain civil, is evidence of questionable reputability. "Vast majority" does not mean "some" or "a few". It means "many more than 50%". I'd settle for you proving that 70% of servers have a population problem.

 

 

 

I enjoy solo RPGs and I enjoy multiplayer RPGs and I enjoy MMO RPGs. I have no problems finding groups. I play on a server with a standard load and am a member of a fantastic guild of active, mostly older players.

 

So, my anecdotal evidence cancels out your anecdotal evidence. Your move.

 

The fact that you attack my points with responses that ignore facts or logic is fine with me.

I have shown facts: On servers with posted population levels of Standard the number of players at prime time is in the range of 3-15. this is not "anecdotal evidence". Other posters have given the same type of examples. Now to you that doesnt mean there is a "population problem". Well to others it does. The fact that you use the subjective term "population problem" to equate with a complete inability to even do a solo mission, or the inablity to do a multiplayer mission on every single planet at the same time, means only that you dont have the ability to think logically. As for the transfers, they are too little and too late. When they finally get around to the mergers in six months they will have lost thousands of subscribers and will be F2P. Whomever at BW is behind the delays and is ignoring the obvious should be fired. At my company, this level of incompetence would not be tolerated.