Regarding server queues

[tazdvl]

Release date for this game was 2 days ago ppl, please don't think this will get bad on 20th....it is as bad as this is going to get or the wait time will disappear in 2 weeks ....

 

IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

[zagarok]

I'm kinda in two minds about all this. On the one hand I totally realise that its a new game, just opening up and stuff so there is bound to be problems, of course. I also realise that other popular MMOs have experienced queue systems in the past on their launch and stuff, perhaps not all servers, but its at least been a problem on some. However, its not like Bioware hasn't had enough time to anticipate the popularity of the game what with pre-orders and testing and although the pre-guild-creation system was a cool idea its caused many of us to be forced onto servers that are chocker block, I'm not sure how they decided to distribute guilds, but it doesn't feel like they did it evenly. Adding servers isn't going to help those of us already on servers that are full, those servers need to be expanded or allow people to move servers for free (or their whole guild, seeing as that was the whole point of the pre-guild-creation system, so we could play with our buddies from the off). Moreover, I and many people seem to be experiencing disconnections a short time into playing, which means they have to queue all over again, 30 minutes or more, for say, five minutes game time, a grace period on this would also be awesome. I totally get the arguments that we're paying for this game and we should be able to play when we please, we are not paying to wait, but like I said, new game, bound to be teething problems. The main issue for me is whether this problem is fixed and how soon, I'm aware its not going to magically happen over night, but with launch coming nearer and nearer, more people will be playing, and then there's Christmas and many people will get it as a gift, are they really prepared for those waves of people to come? I can accept my personal waiting times (around 30 minutes, I consider myself very lucky, I really feel quite outraged for people waiting 6 hours plus, I don't think that's acceptable even for a fresh new game) for now, but if it doesn't significantly improve in the coming weeks and by the time my 30 days runs out I probably won't subscribe, and the game would have rubbed too much of a sore point with me. I hope things get better soon, I am expecting things to then get worse again on launch and after Christmas, but if they remain at this level, buh bye. Which would be a real shame because I don't want to leave, the game is brilliant, I'm just not paying to wait in a queue.

 

Paragraphs dude, paragraphs!

[Korkster]

Early access was a waste of *********** time, I work all day and come home to wait in Queue for almost 2hrs thats ßULLSHìT. I can't get into the game to use the early release. I think I may just bring my reciept in and get my $150 back and play something else.

[Vianar]

Que times are acceptable when they are 15 minutes or less , but 2 to 3 plus hours consistantly every night is damn rediculous. Now I paid 300 bucks for two copies , thats gone already , and when you preorder , you should get early access to the game , not just the sever select screen.

I'm aware that lots want to play so there is some that are playing during my peak play times that normally will not be there. However , its not to the large degree that people seem to think. Here we are 4 or 5 days after Early Access and still 3 days from actual release and you already have unacceptable que times.

 

I'm sure you have already lost numerous subscriptions and have already been issued charge backs on cards. Now is it really needed to have 88 instances of one zone and that is what your goal was? I mean , you only need 3 people to fill a group and probably 80 percent of the game is solo friendly. I'm not sure why you get that its more important to have large numbers of people filling the same server so that there is a que time and saying that its healthy and trying to make people believe that , when you only need a few people to do anything ya want in the game besides 3 or 4 end game instances?

 

88 instances of one zone would suggest a large , very large amount of people on the server. However in beta , there was no more than about 8 to 10 at any one time and I was more than able to find anyone to do anything I needed , easily. Why 10 times that amount equates into easier leveling experience is beyond me.

 

Fact is , you simply started with way to few servers , and now that your adding them in , even then it will not solve the problem because people have time invested with other toons on servers they have to sit in a que for. You screwed up from the get go. It would have been better to start with a lot more servers and have no que times , even if you have 2 or 3 instances of a zone , its still should be easy to find people to play with. You do not need 88. That way your banking your subs stay based off how well your game plays and how good the story is instead of just making sure people have 5000 other people to pick from to fill up a 4 man group.

 

You had all the numbers , your the one that sent out the invites and your also the one that has the capacity numbers that a server can handle , at that point its simple math with some hypotheticals thrown in for good measure . How in the world your numbers got off this far is beyond me. Someone clearly failed math in high school.

[Pheneom]

Bioware you need to fix this soon!!

 

Fix it. More like overhaul it. But I know what you mean and I completely agree.

[Jonnyrocker]

Well the queues are something that needs to get fixed BW because you are gonna loose a lot of ppl playing if this continues.

 

The most annoying part though is that you have not learned from your competitors that has implemented a system when you get dced you still keep your place in the queue.

If you were in the game and dc you dont have to take a place in the queue you get right back in this is in fact a very good system and this is really something you should use.

 

Another thing is that if you place guilds on a server that you have done in the initial phase you should really prioritize those on that server.

From what i heard there were guilds that were placed on one server but they did not like it there so they asked all their members to move to a server which they cared about.

This probably screwed your system BW but it was bound to happen really.

 

Please fix these things because you have a wonderful game goin but these q times are takin the good out of the game and i mean we havent even started the real game time so you must realize that you have a big problem on your hands atm.

 

Regards JR

[Clonecak]

Ok a quick one from me....

 

 

On the one hand - SWTOR is not my job, it is not my life - I won't spend months patiently waiting for you guys to get things right. A video game is for fun, and (for me) it is for de-stressing. Several hours waiting just to get on the server is not fun, and it actually adds to my stress - so if things continue like this I won't be a paying customer for long.

 

On the other hand - this is a new game, and I fully expect there to be teething problems. I've enjoyed what I've seen so far and if you can sort out the wait issues I'd be quite prepared to give this game a month or two to see if I'm going to stay with it long term.

 

 

Sort the wait time out guys please because I'd be gutted to have to say goodbye to a game I've looked forward to for so long!

 

I agree with the stress relief, but I am afraid to check my blood pressure right now.

 

I don't expect errors with a game that I pay more than $75 and $12 a month. This is unacceptable. I don't go to a restaurant and pay $75 for errors and issues, why would I do it for any other product?

[Entt]

Limit the number of accounts that can create a character per server. Lets say 140% of max capacity. I mean, you guys could have done something in advance. Not just leave every server open to everyone. Limit the people limits the queue when majority wants in. This isnt something that people are going to want to create a new character on a low popukation server just to not sit in queues. Alot of people are playing with friends. You should have done something about it. And maybe its to late unless you plan on adding free character transfers to low populated servers in a few months.

[agosi]

Queue times are acceptable when they are 15 minutes or less ...

 

/Agree

Edited December 17, 2011 by agosi

[Clonecak]

as if I was just heard by the SWTOR gods. I just got in and was 119 a second ago.

[Pheneom]

I agree with the stress relief, but I am afraid to check my blood pressure right now.

 

I don't expect errors with a game that I pay more than $75 and $12 a month. This is unacceptable. I don't go to a restaurant and pay $75 for errors and issues, why would I do it for any other product?

 

100% spot on. I could not have said it any other way.

Edited December 17, 2011 by Pheneom

[MichaelSean]

This is good to hear but I wouldn't say that an hour and 40 minutes is reasonable.

[Gradius]

i too order CE and now im starting to feel that mayby i dont buy that and mayby wait month or two before buy digital one, today 3 times disconnect when in first flashpoint(first time on last boss)and allways got back in que for 2-4h not good.... i know its just beginning but still mayby not worth 149€...

i realy hope they do something do this queing thing at least when in middle of flashpoint dissconnect......

well time will tell how this end...

now im in good position my main char is only lvl12 so i can start less crowded server,but......

what happen on 20.12 when is release date?

otherwise i like game very much but not 3h+ queing and repeat same flashpoint over and over and never finish that

now to sleep que 700+before not worth try to get in

[QFez]

as if I was just heard by the SWTOR gods. I just got in and was 119 a second ago.

 

I just suddenly went from the mid 500s to 144 in mine.

 

Yayifications.

[Kozakkoo]

Likely how it works is this(I only know from working at an IT company that handles some fairly large websites):

 

Once you click on a server, the server needs to look up your list of characters, which it likely does by looking up your account, making sure it is authorized(it has a valid account with the right access for the server) then it has to look up and display your characters from a database.

 

That process(depending on how optimized the code is an how big the database is) can take from between millisecond to 5-10 seconds. So when asked to log in by 600 people almost at the same time...You get a 50 minute wait. But an optimized database shouldn't take 5 seconds to run a query.

 

Also, it's possible that once you get that authentication done, the servers are enforcing a limit of some sort to prevent the server from running poorly. If that's the case, then the authentication might be taking way less time and instead, it is just doing the authentication quickly and then asking the server "Is it ok to log in now?" and the server is saying "Nope, already 20,000 people in this server...wait until one logs out".

 

Thx for proper explanation. I did study databases and I agree, there is many ways to optimized them, unless these people do not know what they do. Once again, sack some people, you can save more money by doing this than by limiting number of servers

[pryderi]

I'm just another long queue victim. This is really ridiculous. Waitin 3 hours to login on a server which YOU TELL ME TO PLAY IN is really not something that I can bear with.

 

I can understand you are trying to balance the server populations but all server's seems to be high population atm and still not increasing the server capacity is not understandable.

 

What is more dissappointing and seems hopeless is the argument you made today about we might still have this long waiting queue's in the future.

 

good job guys, really...

[Loeksokka]

Can someone explain in technical way, why do we have to wait in the queue?

 

Technical way?

Servers are overloaded. For an example you can have 10.000 connections for 1 server. If there is 11.000 connections that wants to join, your placed in quene. And will stay there untill your connection quene number is open.

This is why every quene is est. time.

 

1.Connections could also be limited during pre-launch (and I really home it is).

2.Connections could ALSO be permanently limited on an server, and if it is servers are overloaded with population untill someone decides to quit playing on that server.

If this is the case Bioware need to jumpstart more servers if they want more players.

 

Do not mix amount of characters per account to maximum connections.

For an example if an server has 1000 allowed simultanious connections, there can be 2000 accouns active on that specific server.

Well what happens if 1500 of them wants to play same time, quene builds up.

 

So lets really hope this is an temporary error and can be easilly solved without getting new toons on different servers just because the other ones are filled with people.

 

Mainly looking at this issue, it's pretty comon on new launched games that includes

A. Popularity (like Star Wars)

B. Good marketing

 

No matter how many servers there is at launch day, they will be overloaded. The amount of people actually playing after first month (that is included with the game) will drop 10-20% and server connections will be open.

 

Now if the game is succesfull, and SWTOR should be the need of server capacity is an priority issue. And new servers will bloom up.

Since the new players hardly wants to start their SWTOR experience with 30 min quenes, they are most likely to start their adventures on new fresh servers with low population.

 

Hope this gies some insight in your question

[DjuretJan]

Waited four and a half hours to go from 1550th to 2nd, only to be stuck at 2nd for half an hour, forcing me to restart the game (no the game isn't freezing, I see starships flying by and what not). This is the fourth time this has happened to me, in total I've been queued for over 15 hours, and the playtime on my account is around 9 hours. Which means I've been queued for almost twice as long as I've actually played the game.

 

Bloodworthy EU is terrible, but I can't move a guild with 261 members now can I?

 

I liked the whole idea of the launch, I never complained about not getting EGA the first or second day, I completely get the staggering invites etc, I can even handle being in a queue for more than an hour - by planning my day. What I don't like is losing my place in the queue because the queue system you built is flawed.

 

"Playing" the EGA and getting a refund from Gamestop come launch day doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore. Such an amazing game, with a great playerbase - going to waste.

[Magbed]

If i had know this was a massively multiplayer offline role-playing game i wouldnt have bought it. Damm amazon already sent it otherwise i would be cancelling this ****, and dont get me wrong game feels really nice its just all this management that sucks.

 

It had an easy fix if you would have released the list of server a week prior to launch with correct numbers, instead we are left with several communities on the same server thus having unbalanced population on servers.

 

Atm game feels like theres way more people waiting in queue than playing cos most zones look empty ingame.

[--Zinister--]

as if I was just heard by the SWTOR gods. I just got in and was 119 a second ago.

 

119 ppl got tired of waiting...

[Mozart]

This is good to hear but I wouldn't say that an hour and 40 minutes is reasonable.

 

 

I logged on at 10:21pm, it is now 12:52am and I am number 143 in the queue.

 

Estimated queue time was: 50mins.

 

Actual queue time: 2h30m and I AM STILL NOT IN-GAME.

[SpaceSheep]

Paragraphs dude, paragraphs!

 

Lol, sorry man, I thought I did space 'em out, fix'd

[FestivusStarWars]

I know it's water under the bridge, but why not lock the higher population servers from allowing ACCOUNTS to create a new character unless they already have one there?

 

I get a good 1-2 hour wait to play, and God forbid I crash at some point. It needs to be cleared up somehow, and really hope that after people have to start paying for the game it will ease. I bet a lot of folks are looking at it to see if it's worth their money to play.

[Kozakkoo]

Technical way?

Servers are overloaded. For an example you can have 10.000 connections for 1 server. If there is 11.000 connections that wants to join, your placed in quene. And will stay there untill your connection quene number is open.

This is why every quene is est. time.

 

1.Connections could also be limited during pre-launch (and I really home it is).

2.Connections could ALSO be permanently limited on an server, and if it is servers are overloaded with population untill someone decides to quit playing on that server.

If this is the case Bioware need to jumpstart more servers if they want more players.

 

Do not mix amount of characters per account to maximum connections.

For an example if an server has 1000 allowed simultanious connections, there can be 2000 accouns active on that specific server.

Well what happens if 1500 of them wants to play same time, quene builds up.

 

So lets really hope this is an temporary error and can be easilly solved without getting new toons on different servers just because the other ones are filled with people.

 

Mainly looking at this issue, it's pretty comon on new launched games that includes

A. Popularity (like Star Wars)

B. Good marketing

 

No matter how many servers there is at launch day, they will be overloaded. The amount of people actually playing after first month (that is included with the game) will drop 10-20% and server connections will be open.

 

Now if the game is succesfull, and SWTOR should be the need of server capacity is an priority issue. And new servers will bloom up.

Since the new players hardly wants to start their SWTOR experience with 30 min quenes, they are most likely to start their adventures on new fresh servers with low population.

 

Hope this gies some insight in your question

 

Thank you very much.

[zagarok]

If i had know this was a massively multiplayer offline role-playing game i wouldnt have bought it. Damm amazon already sent it otherwise i would be cancelling this ****, and dont get me wrong game feels really nice its just all this management that sucks.

 

It had an easy fix if you would have released the list of server a week prior to launch with correct numbers, instead we are left with several communities on the same server thus having unbalanced population on servers.

 

Atm game feels like theres way more people waiting in queue than playing cos most zones look empty ingame.

 

very empty, ToFN is the most populated server in the EU and there was 37 people on nar shaddar, what is up with that bioware?