Trevalion Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 I am on Vornskyr. Republic fleet populations at prime time on average are 25 people, with approximately the same on Imperial sides. We have not been transferred yet. We have been informed that transfers will not happen this weekend because they are "monitoring" the situation. While I am disappointed by the idea of having a dead server all weekend (and who knows how long next week), I am really frustrated by the lack of information as to why. Your explanation is lacking. Please articulate to me the risks that you are balancing by observing over the weekend and not finishing your transfers now? I have heard guesses, and speculation. Some of which makes sense and seems logical. I am looking for a yellow post clearly articulating the reason your waiting over the weekend. To make my request more clear, "observing the population" and "monitoring data" are not informative answers as to why some servers cannot be transferred before the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regulaser Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 because they dont care. the best example that some have already stated is the 2 remaining east coast pvp servers. they didnt get transferred, yet they will have to go to one of the destination servers anyways, so why wait? there wont be any difference, so theres literally no excuse not to have transferred the last two servers. bw just doesnt seem to care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ealaniel Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 They want to make sure that the destination servers are balanced in population. This requires watching them for an extended period of time, not just in the initial land-rush of people transferring. Unfortunately, it's easy to make the initial, big moves - just throw eight servers here, ten servers there... but you can't control unknown factors, like how many people actually tranfer, and how actively they play. So once you get down to the business of fine-tuning, the last few servers have to wait additional days while Bioware watches the server pops to make sure that they get it right. It's not a situation that anyone would be happy with, but really, it's just an extra couple of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galbatorrix Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 because they dont care. the best example that some have already stated is the 2 remaining east coast pvp servers. they didnt get transferred, yet they will have to go to one of the destination servers anyways, so why wait? there wont be any difference, so theres literally no excuse not to have transferred the last two servers. bw just doesnt seem to care. Because they'll end up moving them to the server that is the slowest over the weekend in hopes that the population for both are more balanced? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 All of the speculation about why they choose to do this is not new. However, I have not yet read a yellow name articulate any truth behind those speculations. I HAVE read the yellow posts that ambiguously said stuff about "monitoring populations" and waiting for weekend people to loin. HOWEVER that does not answer the question about articulating the RISK they are balancing in choosing not to allow further origin servers. That is what I am looking for, a clear description of the risk they are trying to mitigate by this decision. It obviously is disappointing, and I am obviously disappointed. I could swallow this bitter pill a little easier if I could clearly understand why they chose this route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecretScientist Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Seems like Bio thinks whatever happens this weekend will somehow extrapolate for years and years. Of course, whatever data they gather will be wildy skewed based on bad communication and uncertainty. -or- An equally plausible explanation is that it's Friday and happy hour starts early. Weather is great and margaritas do sound good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ealaniel Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 HOWEVER that does not answer the question about articulating the RISK they are balancing in choosing not to allow further origin servers. That is what I am looking for, a clear description of the risk they are trying to mitigate by this decision. It obviously is disappointing, and I am obviously disappointed. I could swallow this bitter pill a little easier if I could clearly understand why they chose this route. The risk is that they point the final servers to the wrong destinations, server populations are imbalanced or overloaded, and the forums are inundated with (more) complaints. I think no one from Bioware has explicitly addressed this because it's blindingly obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wutru Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 I am on Vornskyr. Republic fleet populations at prime time on average are 25 people, with approximately the same on Imperial sides. We have not been transferred yet. We have been informed that transfers will not happen this weekend because they are "monitoring" the situation. While I am disappointed by the idea of having a dead server all weekend (and who knows how long next week), I am really frustrated by the lack of information as to why. Your explanation is lacking. Please articulate to me the risks that you are balancing by observing over the weekend and not finishing your transfers now? I have heard guesses, and speculation. Some of which makes sense and seems logical. I am looking for a yellow post clearly articulating the reason your waiting over the weekend. To make my request more clear, "observing the population" and "monitoring data" are not informative answers as to why some servers cannot be transferred before the weekend. It's because they are lazy and want the weekend off. Their excuse holds no water. They just don't want to pay their employees overtime to get this fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecretScientist Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 The risk is that they point the final servers to the wrong destinations, server populations are imbalanced or overloaded, and the forums are inundated with (more) complaints. I think no one from Bioware has explicitly addressed this because it's blindingly obvious. Bzzt. Try again. They have months of data on which to perform trend analysis. That and there's no need to fill each destination server to the brim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legendari Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 I'd say it's pretty obvious... They have transferred a LOT of origin servers into a substantially smaller number of destination servers. Not everyone logs in during the week, and there will also be a number of people returning to the game as a result of the merges. Until they have a chance to monitor the active populations over the weekend, they won't really have an accurate idea of which servers they need to top off and which ones are at their desired levels. The lack of details may be annoying, but this doesn't seem that difficult to understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcxun Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 I don't want to be on the server left open for the new FTP people coming in July. I would rather know now so I can work on a character I rerolled...rather than waste my time on a near-dead server working on characters hoping to be transferred soon. I am really tired of reading how everyone is so happy and can actually play with other people now that they are transferred when there are those of us left behind that seriously got the shaft. I came back after not playing for a month (Enjoy that free money) to find out we are one of the people not transferring because someone is measuring data and working weekends is too hard? This absolutely sucks. It is not okay. This is not cool. It is not pleasing fans. You knew exactly what servers wouldn't be transferred. I don't understand why you didn't let us know instead of leading us on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 (edited) The risk is that they point the final servers to the wrong destinations, server populations are imbalanced or overloaded, and the forums are inundated with (more) complaints. I think no one from Bioware has explicitly addressed this because it's blindingly obvious. I am not blind. The questions of where to point the last servers to is just as obvious. The assertion that data they will obtain from the weekend will paint a more clear picture of where to send those servers seems false to me. Consider the remaining amount of PVE servers and the potential population that they represent. Even given my ignorance of THE RISK THAT THEY ARE MANAGING it seems perfectly clear to me that those servers could be merged into a new destination at little to no risk of imbalance or overloading. The only t h o r n y problems that I can even speculate on is faction imbalance, or if they were to move them into the current destination servers (which seems pretty silly to me). The pvp servers are even more cut and dried base on the number of remaining origin servers. So, I am still looking for a yellow name to more clearly articulate the risks that they are managing, which caused them to decide to not allow the small number of remaining servers to merge. Edited June 15, 2012 by Trevalion t h o r n y?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ealaniel Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Bzzt. Try again. They have months of data on which to perform trend analysis. That and there's no need to fill each destination server to the brim. Ok. They have months of data that tell them exactly what percentage of each server's population is going to transfer? You need to change your forum name because you're definitely not a scientist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 It's because they are lazy and want the weekend off. Their excuse holds no water. They just don't want to pay their employees overtime to get this fixed. This, its friday let's party .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 (edited) I'd say it's pretty obvious... They have transferred a LOT of origin servers into a substantially smaller number of destination servers. Not everyone logs in during the week, and there will also be a number of people returning to the game as a result of the merges. Until they have a chance to monitor the active populations over the weekend, they won't really have an accurate idea of which servers they need to top off and which ones are at their desired levels.The lack of details may be annoying, but this doesn't seem that difficult to understand. -AND- adding to what was said above, they need to do this to determine IF more destiniation servers are needed and WHICH servers should be the next destination server in the case of PVE East. I am hoping Shadow Hand is the next destination for PVE East. It used to be pretty strong from Early Acess to D3 launch. Now light during the week and trending standard on the weekend. Edited June 15, 2012 by Urael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricJS Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Bzzt. Try again. They have months of data on which to perform trend analysis. That and there's no need to fill each destination server to the brim. Bzzt. Try again. The months of data they've collected has no information on how weekend players will respond to the server transfers and minimal information on how infrequent players respond. If it were just about how many players were on each server, then sure, they'd have that data at their fingertips. Doing the transfers considering only the source populations would be less than optimally effective, sort of like a day trader that invests in any stock prices that are rising, without considering things like new or upcoming changes in the market, including competition. It might be good enough for some, but I think the devs think that they can do better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 So, I am still looking for a yellow name to more clearly articulate the risks that they are managing, which caused them to decide to not allow the small number of remaining servers to merge. This is about as close as you are going to get: All right folks, I have an update for you. As mentioned before, because of the logistics in monitoring the rate of character transfers and population shifts onto destination servers, our cadence for opening up origin servers will change day-to-day. As we approach the weekend, we want to be careful about where to allow additional servers to transfer to so as not to overwhelm current destination servers. Many weekend players will be logging in, contributing to our overall analysis. This means that we need to monitor populations and rate of transfers over the weekend before opening up new servers. We understand that players are anxious to transfer, but please be patient during this process so that we can deliver the best gameplay experience that we can offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 I'd say it's pretty obvious... They have transferred a LOT of origin servers into a substantially smaller number of destination servers. Not everyone logs in during the week, and there will also be a number of people returning to the game as a result of the merges. Until they have a chance to monitor the active populations over the weekend, they won't really have an accurate idea of which servers they need to top off and which ones are at their desired levels. The lack of details may be annoying, but this doesn't seem that difficult to understand. Now, if this wasn't just speculation and was written by a yellow name I would be satisfied with this explanation. The ideas quoted here are not new to me, and I am not disputing their logic and common sense. However, they have not been articulated by a yellow name. They also only answer PART of the problem. I just want a clear explanation from a yellow name to allow me to choke down my disappointment. While I am not discouraging others from posting their opinions and speculation I can only call it speculation until a BW employee gives me a clearer answer than what already exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kharnis Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Now, if this wasn't just speculation and was written by a yellow name I would be satisfied with this explanation. The ideas quoted here are not new to me, and I am not disputing their logic and common sense. However, they have not been articulated by a yellow name. They also only answer PART of the problem. I just want a clear explanation from a yellow name to allow me to choke down my disappointment. While I am not discouraging others from posting their opinions and speculation I can only call it speculation until a BW employee gives me a clearer answer than what already exists. Dev Tracker is your friend. All right folks, I have an update for you. As mentioned before, because of the logistics in monitoring the rate of character transfers and population shifts onto destination servers, our cadence for opening up origin servers will change day-to-day. As we approach the weekend, we want to be careful about where to allow additional servers to transfer to so as not to overwhelm current destination servers. Many weekend players will be logging in, contributing to our overall analysis. This means that we need to monitor populations and rate of transfers over the weekend before opening up new servers. We understand that players are anxious to transfer, but please be patient during this process so that we can deliver the best gameplay experience that we can offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planar Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Personally I had hoped they would quit trying to push the remaining servers onto 1 or 2 already heavily populated and just decide to send the rest of us into one server. Much as I would rather be a destination server to preserve my character names given the choice of another weekend of falling asleep at my keyboard from boredom waiting on a WZ que and having more people to play with and get stuck with names like Hazelback i wll choose the stupid name everytime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbutehorn Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 All of the speculation about why they choose to do this is not new. However, I have not yet read a yellow name articulate any truth behind those speculations. I HAVE read the yellow posts that ambiguously said stuff about "monitoring populations" and waiting for weekend people to loin. HOWEVER that does not answer the question about articulating the RISK they are balancing in choosing not to allow further origin servers. That is what I am looking for, a clear description of the risk they are trying to mitigate by this decision. It obviously is disappointing, and I am obviously disappointed. I could swallow this bitter pill a little easier if I could clearly understand why they chose this route. Essentially they are watching the weekend traffic on current destination servers to see if it spikes high enough that they need another destination server for you. If population remains under control they will consider moving you to one of the current destination servers. The RISK they are talking about is whether they have enough destination servers as it stands now or whether they want more destination servers. BW does not want to send you from an empty server to a destination server that is also empty. So now with the remaining servers that have not been able to transfer they fine tune it to try and make sure each destination server provides a similar gaming experience for every one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 This is about as close as you are going to get: le sigh Your probably right. While it provides a good explanation of WHY they chose to do it, it doesn't answer my request of an articulation of the RISK they are balancing. For example, they must obviously have considered how upset the remaining people not yet transferred may be. There is one yellow post that says "sorry, we know it sucks to wait" I would like to know what OTHER factors, if any have bearing on this (imo) bad decision? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 Essentially they are watching the weekend traffic on current destination servers to see if it spikes high enough that they need another destination server for you. If population remains under control they will consider moving you to one of the current destination servers. The RISK they are talking about is whether they have enough destination servers as it stands now or whether they want more destination servers. BW does not want to send you from an empty server to a destination server that is also empty. So now with the remaining servers that have not been able to transfer they fine tune it to try and make sure each destination server provides a similar gaming experience for every one. You have identified an obvious potential risk factor. Is it the only one? The one that you identified seems pretty straightforward, but minimal when compared to the angst and disappointment and frustration from those paying players on the remaining servers (at least to me). Especially considering that alot of subs run out on Monday and you have just told a statistically significant chunk of your player base that they had to be the ones to take one for the team. Are the numbers that they gain really worth the bad feelings? Hard to say, which is why I am interested in hearing a more clear articulation of the other things they considered when making this decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecretScientist Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Bzzt. Try again. The months of data they've collected has no information on how weekend players will respond to the server transfers and minimal information on how infrequent players respond. If it were just about how many players were on each server, then sure, they'd have that data at their fingertips. Doing the transfers considering only the source populations would be less than optimally effective, sort of like a day trader that invests in any stock prices that are rising, without considering things like new or upcoming changes in the market, including competition. It might be good enough for some, but I think the devs think that they can do better. Not buying it. They can determine how many people play on a regular basis on those last servers. There's plenty of historical data for trend analysis. Coupled with proper consumer research, it should be fairly straightforward to estimate how many will transfer. If they don't understand their consumer's behaviours, needs and desires, shame on them. I'll take that over any inductive work-up based on two (weekend) days of your day trading to determine how many people will be playing months from now. Honestly, they're making this 10x harder than necessary. Plenty of best practiced to draw upon and no need to invent a rounder wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanguineSphinx Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Wait three days to ensure healthy population for years. Seems like a good deal to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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