FREE Character Transfers are Coming!

[GreySix]

You have no claim. I see no flag. And if i did, I would burn it. So there; it's mine.

 

Oh yeah?!

 

Well ..... just shut up!

 

That's why!

[Mallorik]

I am really curious how this will play out. I had the misfortune of ending up on a server that isn't the worst of the worst, but with only 75 empire, and a repub side that gets about 15 at peak times, it's frustrating.

 

A month ago I re-rolled to a higher pop server (Harbinger) in hopes that I could re-unite my 3 50's, and many game hours on Crucible Pits with the new character. Based on this Q&A, I see me having to pay to get my characters from the lower pop to the higher pop...... seems kind of BS if it shakes out this way. As much as I have put on a grin and tried to play through this lack of people to do anything with, I fear I may be at wits end with this population issue that has been allowed to get worse by the day.

 

Yeah i have a similar problem, i rerolled to the swiftsure from a server that isnt totaly dead but close enough, thinking i could bring my other 2 50's and 2 35's along with my level 30 legacy to the swiftsure, but now the swiftsure is doing really well and ill most likely have to pay to bring anything over. But who knows *** will happen, so i just quit playing period.

[HeavensAgent]

Oh yeah?!

 

Well ..... just shut up!

 

That's why!

Well ... fine ... be that way. I don't really have anything else to say in response ... so ... my next logical course of action is obvious:

 

 

• The game is dying!
  
• SWTOR's going F2P!
  
• Dogs are giving birth to kittens!
  

Edited May 1, 2012 by HeavensAgent

[Powderhorn]

My server currently has 35. While people are at work. And school. Your point? You think this is different than any other MMO at 4 months old?

 

Incidentally, in the evenings, there's typically 150 on the Fleet every day on my server, too. So counts at this time of day are completely useless.

 

Also, they're more than likely going to offer free transfers from low-pop servers to standard servers, then cull a few low-pops. It's an MMO standard these days.

 

I'm not talking 40 people in fleet, I'm talking 40 people TOTAL. The issue is, this population barely fluctuates even in prime time hours. At MOST, we see 80 people, TOTAL. Rarely, you'll see more than 10 people in fleet. That's prime time.

 

As for what method BioWare is likely to use? I suspect they will look at a list of possibilities as to how to manage selective transfers, choose the least effective method, put a bow on it and send it out to us. (Late, as well)

[Sorrasht]

Amazing how some people don't even check before spewing crap all over the place. Here, let me help you:

 

Maybe it's you that need some help buddy. Go read some database administration tomes and then we'll talk ok? Till then, keep wearing your strawman costume and play this CSRclone game you like so much.

 

You, and a couple more posters keep accusing people of lack of arguments but fail to discuss this in a logical manner, resorting to official releases as if they were the word of the allmighty. And by <insert deity>, do not dare question their statistics! You'll be branded a conspiracy theorist (as if the economics of big companies were that transparent and not subject to hype and speculation) and your opinion and experience counts for nothing.

 

You sir, do more harm than good to this game.

[HeavensAgent]

If we are not supposed to take the developers at their word, and if we are not supposed to view independently-gathered population data as valid, then what information are we supposed to use? What information are you utilizing in your analysis of the situation?

[Powderhorn]

History.

[Mallorik]

If we are not supposed to take the developers at their word, and if we are not supposed to view independently-gathered population data as valid, then what information are we supposed to use? What information are you utilizing in your analysis of the situation?

 

Why would anyone take the developers at their word about subs or population? if they werent going to fudge the numbers they would not hide the server populations. Anyone else remember a time when mmo server select screens had the actual populations of the servers?

[Claidh]

I'll be honest, I'm not reading 89 pages of arguments and wish lists. I just hope that my guild gets a free transfer off our ghost town server and onto somewhere with a player base. We were placed by BW on our server and I think that the transfer off is owed to us. No, they didn't know which servers would be full and which would wither, but we didn't get our choice to start off with (trying to play by the pre-launch rules) so I do think we should get our transport, intact, for free to a new home. And that includes our Legacy. I've got a lvl 20 legacy "family" that I really don't think I'd try to rebuild in the same way that I did on the first go-round.

 

I dig the game, I love my characters, but it''s hard to play the entire game solo and stay excited.

[Torcer]

My server currently has 35. While people are at work. And school. Your point? You think this is different than any other MMO at 4 months old?

 

.

 

Actually, yes, it’s VERY different. EQ had far, far more people on the average server at all times than TOR servers tend to have and EQ’s total population was never a fraction of TOR’s supposed 1.7 Million. (Of course you could do a who all for the first few years of EQ and get an actual server number, my server tended towards 1,000-3,000) Pretty much every MMO that wasn’t a complete failure had much more populated servers than TOR does now. There are too many TOR servers, period.

[Jederix]

Hold your horses!

 

I'm pretty sure it says "paid" server transfers as well.

 

And why, oh why did I know they would try to pull this server transfer junk? Because they don't want the news of server merges to happen. It's just like WoW. Instead of merging the dead servers it had, Blizzard only offered server transfers to make money and send players to worse populated servers.

 

This game doesn't need TRANSFERS and new ways Bioware can make more money.

 

It needs MERGES. PERIOD. Any less than that is just some ploy to pretend there is no problem.

 

And why do I have a feeling this feature will come around the time another game is announced to release?

 

It's not fun to not be able to get groups.

 

It's not fun to level alts with no one around.

 

It's not fun to fight my own faction over and over in a faction based PvP game.

 

It's not fun to wait almost an HOUR for one pvp match.

 

Some people have to study, work etc and don't have time to wait all day just to do ONE thing.

 

I don't care about how many imaginary people are supposedly playing this game.

 

As far as my server is concerned I . SEE . NO . ONE.

 

SERVER MERGES. NOT SERVER TRANSFERS. THAT WILL JUST MAKE THE DAMN PROBLEM WORSE!

 

Jesus freaking christ...WHO RUNS BIOWARE?

 

YOU WILL NOT GET MERGERS. YOU WILL NOT GET MERGERS. YOU WILL NOT GET MERGERS.

 

It's common sense. Well, for most of us anyway.

[HeavensAgent]

Why would anyone take the developers at their word about subs or population?

It might have something to do with federal legislation ...

[MrPierce]

I'm excited for free character transfers but I still have one worry. I rushed like crazy to get the name I wanted, on a server Bioware assigned me and my guild to. Now my assigned server is d-e-d, and I'm looking to transfer. I already know my name isn't available on the server I'd like to play on, although I have no idea if its being held by a level 50 or by a level 1 placeholder. If it is just being held by a level 1 placeholder will there be some mechanism for me to file a petition and be like "Look, I'm level 50, I have mad /played on this character, can I have my name?" Or does my cool name just rot on the level 1 placeholder to MAYBE be used for someone's alt one day?

 

Also how are legacies going to transfer? On my old server my legacy name is in the teens and well developed. On my new server my new gunslinger has the same legacy name, but its only level 2. Will I keep my level 2 version or my level 16 version? Can I just combine the experience of both since they're the same name and all grinded by my toons?

 

Obviously I don't think we know how its going to work yet, but these are my initial concerns, after the elation at being able to at least get my 50 vanguard out of the BFE server he's stuck on.

[HeavensAgent]

Actually, yes, it’s VERY different. EQ had far, far more people on the average server at all times than TOR servers tend to have and EQ’s total population was never a fraction of TOR’s supposed 1.7 Million. (Of course you could do a who all for the first few years of EQ and get an actual server number, my server tended towards 1,000-3,000) Pretty much every MMO that wasn’t a complete failure had much more populated servers than TOR does now. There are too many TOR servers, period.

This I would agree with. I believe the overall population is strong, but the only way to truly address the issues being experienced on some servers is formal merges. There are too many servers at the moment.

[Mallorik]

It might have something to do with federal legislation ...

 

So how would they get away with saying they have 1.7 m subs when they actualy have 1m subs? if it were me i would probably give everyone free subs.

[HeavensAgent]

I'm excited for free character transfers but I still have one worry. I rushed like crazy to get the name I wanted, on a server Bioware assigned me and my guild to. Now my assigned server is d-e-d, and I'm looking to transfer. I already know my name isn't available on the server I'd like to play on, although I have no idea if its being held by a level 50 or by a level 1 placeholder. If it is just being held by a level 1 placeholder will there be some mechanism for me to file a petition and be like "Look, I'm level 50, I have mad /played on this character, can I have my name?" Or does my cool name just rot on the level 1 placeholder to MAYBE be used for someone's alt one day?

I imagine it will remain unavailable. To a precedent of random removal of character names, for whatever reason, is an extremely bad idea.

Also how are legacies going to transfer? On my old server my legacy name is in the teens and well developed. On my new server my new gunslinger has the same legacy name, but its only level 2. Will I keep my level 2 version or my level 16 version? Can I just combine the experience of both since they're the same name and all grinded by my toons?

In the case of the Asia-Pacific transfers, the Legacy with the higher level was retained while the other was deleted. The individual levels/experience of the two legacies were not combined.

[HeavensAgent]

So how would they get away with saying they have 1.7 m subs when they actualy have 1m subs? if it were me i would probably give everyone free subs.

And thus an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory emerges.

[Mallorik]

YOU WILL NOT GET MERGERS. YOU WILL NOT GET MERGERS. YOU WILL NOT GET MERGERS.

 

It's common sense. Well, for most of us anyway.

 

Why is it common sense? what mmo has never had server merges? They are having server transfers so there is going to be servers with 2-nobody on them, why would they keep them open?

[Mallorik]

And thus an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory emerges.

 

LOL, then why do game companies hide their server numbers now? to me its more of a theory to assume they arent trying to hide something when they are OBVIOUSLY HIDING SOMETHING.

[MrPierce]

I imagine it will remain unavailable. To a precedent of random removal of character names, for whatever reason, is an extremely bad idea.

 

I don't know, back in WoW classic there were a few servers that were just slammed and overpopulated, so before they did paid transfers they allowed certain servers to go from those to others. I personally left Stormreaver for Korgath. When I got there my name was taken, so I petitioned. They said it was held by a level 1 with virtually no /played, so they let me have my name. No skies fell there.

 

The only difference might be when the character was created, I think in that situation some of our enemy guilds on Stormreaver heard we were transferring and went and grabbed up all the names of the main players in our guild as a rude gesture as we left.

 

And if someone has a vested interest and wants to fight it they have an opportunity to ticket it as well. Personally though part of my toon is the name, transferring off the character without the name is only like getting part of the character.

 

I'd rather have part of something though than all of nothing I guess.

[Kurfer]

WoW quietly merged servers due to low population numbers on more than one occasion.

 

Stop comparing what wow did, it;s obvious this dev team won't learn from them.

 

The populations are not comparable, WoW is a freaking juggernaut in terms of population. This game has servers with less people online than a single BF3 server...

 

This game will never see even a fraction of WoW's numbers. It;s like comparing the population of Hawaii to the rest of the United States.

[JeramieCrowe]

Actually, yes, it’s VERY different. EQ had far, far more people on the average server at all times than TOR servers tend to have and EQ’s total population was never a fraction of TOR’s supposed 1.7 Million. (Of course you could do a who all for the first few years of EQ and get an actual server number, my server tended towards 1,000-3,000) Pretty much every MMO that wasn’t a complete failure had much more populated servers than TOR does now. There are too many TOR servers, period.

 

And EQ's launch was a complete NIGHTMARE. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. Either have a horrible launch with every server having 6 hour queues, or do it smooth with more servers to handle the load, then deal with "game is dying" Chicken Littling until you cull them back. BioWare chose the latter, and will very likely close some servers.

 

Yes, there are too many TOR servers right now. That's being handled.

[JeramieCrowe]

Stop comparing what wow did, it;s obvious this dev team won't learn from them.

 

The populations are not comparable, WoW is a freaking juggernaut in terms of population. This game has servers with less people online than a single BF3 server...

 

This game will never see even a fraction of WoW's numbers. It;s like comparing the population of Hawaii to the rest of the United States.

 

Actually, TOR has more subs now than WoW did at 4 months old...

[JeramieCrowe]

LOL, then why do game companies hide their server numbers now? to me its more of a theory to assume they arent trying to hide something when they are OBVIOUSLY HIDING SOMETHING.

 

The reason they hide it has nothing to do with obscuring info from the playerbase. It has to do with the market and competition. The more the competition is in the dark about actual sub numbers, the better it is for the company for a myriad reasons.

 

It's gotte quite cut-throat out there...

Edited May 1, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[HeavensAgent]

I don't know, back in WoW classic there were a few servers that were just slammed and overpopulated, so before they did paid transfers they allowed certain servers to go from those to others. I personally left Stormreaver for Korgath. When I got there my name was taken, so I petitioned. They said it was held by a level 1 with virtually no /played, so they let me have my name. No skies fell there.

Actually skies did fall. I recall what happened, and it was something that occurred in WoW's days before the launch population settled in the same way it has in SWTOR now. Someone then posted it to the boards, encouraging others to seek GM help to get the names they wanted. Alerted to the situation by this, others in the community checked their alt characters, saw that they were effected, and demanded action. Blizzard ended up disavowing the action, blaming it on a handful of customer service staff; and people lost their jobs as a result.