Character Transfer, Server Populations, and You (Part II)

[Suzina]

See, I feel bad for you who have become so jaded that you just automatically expect the developers are going to lie and mislead you. I try to have at least some faith that a company might at least attempt to be honest.

 

If I can't trust the developers to at least try to be honest with the players, why bother playing the game unless you are a masochist.

 

I don't think you can trust the developers to be honest to players.

 

There is a PR department to word things for them. PR decided "mergers" were bad but "free transfers" were good. They did this for SWG. "Free transfers, but only from low-to-high population!" It completely killed the origin servers, then they shut them down. It was really unfair that they were dishonest, but developers never report bad news, so they say nothing or they lie.

[SteveLong]

I am wondering when i am going to see Fat man TO Bastian.....i have 7 characters that need to be moved to my main.

[ShionKreth]

I'm surprised I got affected by this as on launch my friend and I chose the second most populated east coast rp server, because of course the most populated one was completely packed and ridden with long queues and like most players we hate that, oh the irony.

 

That said, I still don't see how bioware is planning to fit all their subscribers onto these 12 servers; it seems completely impossible to me and I'm just hoping they open up more server options after they realize the whole notion that they're going to squeeze every east coast rp-pve player, from every other server of it's type, on to the same packed server, along with every future east coast rp pve player, as there are NO other options, and from that we're going to be free to play without huge queues in zones that aren't overcrowded while enjoying a newfound sense of community is folly.

[Spawnhard]

Bioware's naming convention is archaic, there are other ways to do it now. For instance JadeRose.#### where ".###" is not visible and that way everyone can have the name they want. This can easily apply to Legacies too, my character's surname was the surname of the very first character I ever wrote about in a Star Wars setting and it had a lot of meaning to me. It hurt a lot to have to lose that because of these stupid mergers.

 

I agree completely. If not your idea, why not incorporate the legacy name with the first name. For instance, instead of /tell Jade, I send a /tell Jade.Rose. Problem solved.

[cfunk]

I honestly don't want to transfer, I picked a low population server with my friends because we team together and only together. I don't care about character names and i doubt anyone is using my Legacy name as it comes from my characters on CoH but what I do care about is being forced to a server that is constantly full with more than a 30 minute wait time. Why should I have to wait a half hour in a queue for a game that I pay for. I cancelled my sub for CoH specifically for SWTOR. I might just end up cancelling my sub here and going back to CoH. I don't give a crap about the stupid perks either, I don't do dailies. I get a character to 50 and then start working on another one. I love the story arcs in the game but BW has just screwed this thing up royally. Why would you have multiple servers going into 1 destination server, that's just asinine....actually it's piss poor decision making

[InnerPieces]

As for Ebon Hawk and queue times, I have only ever been put into the queue and that was in December 2011. Even after the mergers, I have not ever been put into queue - and I play in "primetime" hours. So not sure what the deal is there.

 

You only see the server status when you are logging in. That means there can easily be queues when you are already logged in and would not know. The hours have been a little off as well the last couple of nights (on Ebon Hawk). At 2030 last night, the server was only showing Heavy. At 2215, it was showing Full. That was a little late for a population boost (usually starts to hit earlier) but I was surprised. Queues can and do happen. That's awesome you have not experienced them.

 

Personally, I have only experienced them 5 or 6 times on Ebon Hawk since the transfer (though several of the others show them nearly every night). My issues, however, revolve around the overcrowding. I just wanted to point out how the population can spike and you not be aware of it.

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This post is meant to be conversational and is in no way intended to be rude, mocking, or negative in any way toward any community member.

Edited July 12, 2012 by InnerPieces

[SidneyFault]

whats awesome is that our devoted Dev's (sarcastically of course) have done nothing but lie, and go back on promises since the launch of this game.. I would wager that this game will not last if serious changes are not made.

 

Someone over at bioware should be getting their pink slip this week.. we all know that is not going to happen, because it is pretty evident that they have stopped caring, or more than likely never did care about the community or maintaining a healthy game environment.

[SidneyFault]

did the guild summit or all those questionnaires about ques times, server pop, and beign able to customize your own play style mean anything... because this absolutely means they don't care about half of the community wanting medium pop servers. I will not play this game if I have to play on heavy or full servers. I would rather go back to WOW before dealing with that garbage.

[Rogue_CWO]

I don't PVP, and I find pets annoying, so neither of the so-called "rewards" for jumping before I'm pushed hold any meaning for me. Neither do the supposed benefits of a larger player population. I like being the lone hero. It's difficult to maintain that mindset when there are three other Jedi, two smugglers and a trooper in my eyeline at any given time. But that's secondary, and I know many will disagree.

 

My real objection is being forced into having to queue to play the game I'm paying for. I don't think that's unreasonable. But we're being ignored.

 

I can't agree more! I have only been playing for a couple of months and have been strictly a PVE player. I was invited to SWTOR by a friend, so I started in his "LIGHT" game play server. After multiple emails and constant in game nags, I decided to give in and transfer my characters, what a HUGE mistake. I wasn't given a choice of destination servers and have been dumped in to a server that is constantly Full with HEAVY or VERY HEAVY play. My first night of game play on the new server was just like being in the queue at Disney. If this is the kind of game play I can expect, I won't be wasting my money on a game I can't enjoy.

[InnerPieces]

In the blog, the second to the last line says "Thanks again for your participation and support!"

http://www.swtor.com/blog/character-transfer-server-populations-and-you-part-ii

 

If I didn't choose to transfer and you force the transfer of my characters, you obviously do not have my participation or support. I have been looking at server populatoins during peak hours and for the East Coast PvE destination servers, they are either very heavy or full.

 

How is supporting your customer base best demonstrated by forcing them onto servers where they may not be able to login to play the game they pay for through a subscription and initial purchase?

 

I realize that keeping on an excessive number of servers isn't cost effective and Bioware is afterall a business. But, you might want to expand on the number of destination servers to accomodate the numbers. I moved to a lighter population sever for a reason when the game first launched and I will be very dissappointed if I cannot access the game I pay for because you decided to keep too few servers.

 

I think their point is if you continue to subscribe you are supporting BioWare and if you continue to play you are participating.

 

I get your point and I am not arguing or being rude in any way, shape, or form. I am simply offering my impression of what "participation and support" means. I hope you understand.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This post is meant to be conversational and is in no way intended to be rude, mocking, or negative in any way toward any community member.

Edited July 12, 2012 by InnerPieces

[Walking-Carpet]

Bioware's naming convention is archaic, there are other ways to do it now. For instance JadeRose.#### where ".###" is not visible and that way everyone can have the name they want.

I completely agree. When I first learned how the naming system would work in SWTOR, I was both surprised and disappointed that an MMO released in 2011 (almost 2012) would not have come up with something better.

[Durgah]

I can't agree more! I have only been playing for a couple of months and have been strictly a PVE player. I was invited to SWTOR by a friend, so I started in his "LIGHT" game play server. After multiple emails and constant in game nags, I decided to give in and transfer my characters, what a HUGE mistake. I wasn't given a choice of destination servers and have been dumped in to a server that is constantly Full with HEAVY or VERY HEAVY play. My first night of game play on the new server was just like being in the queue at Disney. If this is the kind of game play I can expect, I won't be wasting my money on a game I can't enjoy.

 

Same, my wife and i have only been playing a few months and if they move us to a heavy pop server well I will be cancelling the accounts.

[Thyferra]

I am really surprised by the reactions. Anyone that could not see a forced transfer in the future was either naive or dumb. Did you really think they would keep nearly 190 servers up and running so that a handfull of people can log on and play on those servers?

This was a server merge from the start and if you could not see this comming its your own fault.

 

But i do agree that the naming policy should have been based on something different. Active account, date and time of creation and that stuff.

 

Life on the destination servers (at least mine) is really good. I lost my legacy name in the process but i can live with that. I had no trouble leveling a new toon or completing dailys. Yes the fleet lags a little but everything else is fine.

 

Edit: On a free transfer or a merge why would you expect a choice of where you can go to?

Edited July 12, 2012 by Thyferra

[Aphradesia]

I can't agree more! I have only been playing for a couple of months and have been strictly a PVE player. I was invited to SWTOR by a friend, so I started in his "LIGHT" game play server. After multiple emails and constant in game nags, I decided to give in and transfer my characters, what a HUGE mistake. I wasn't given a choice of destination servers and have been dumped in to a server that is constantly Full with HEAVY or VERY HEAVY play. My first night of game play on the new server was just like being in the queue at Disney. If this is the kind of game play I can expect, I won't be wasting my money on a game I can't enjoy.

 

And just think, it is only going to get worse before it gets better. After all, they have not yet gotten to the "forced" mergers where they are going to make everyone else join these servers as well.

 

Add to the fact that as soon as a new expansion comes, so does a ton of people curious if the game improved meaning yet MORE population to the already over populated servers.

 

Yeah, I read somewhere about them trying to make super servers in the long run, but until then why are we going to be stuck playing on crappy overfull one with queues. I mean the game has been out for how long, when does beta officially stop.

[MadBlue]

now this is an argument I agree with. People shouldn't have to lose characters - at least not characters over level 20 anyway.

 

I have a factually unfounded sneaking suspicion that Bioware is working on increasing character/server caps though.

 

Well, regarding raising server caps, there's always Daniel Erickson's quote:

"...we are coming up on a huge move to servers with massively higher population caps than we have today."

(note, this is about improving what are now the current destination servers, not some additional future merge into megaservers a-la DCUO that some people have been predicting)

 

And this by James Ohlen:

"Then we have programmers working on technology for our servers which will allow us to put a lot of players together."

 

Regarding character slots, there's this by Daniel Erickson:

"There will definitely be more slots appearing in the near future. Stay tuned for details."

 

I don't know if all of that will be in place by the time they automatically transfer the remaining characters to the destination servers, but, regarding the population caps, since the free trial has gone live, and characters can only be created on servers that are already "full," I imagine they'd want to have the architecture in place to increase population caps and address the issues that high populations cause before the end of the month.

Edited July 12, 2012 by MadBlue

[ghragskull]

Jesus... Some people are unbelievable. I can't believe some people are so obsessed and upset with just a simple character name. Especially in a setting where you're character's name have very little relevance to others. Have anyone ever told you just a game? You're not naming your child or creating a dynasty here ya know.

 

 

personally i just dont want to be on a heavy pop server there is a reason i chose a low pop to begin with.

[Tuscad]

I don't think you can trust the developers to be honest to players.

 

There is a PR department to word things for them. PR decided "mergers" were bad but "free transfers" were good. They did this for SWG. "Free transfers, but only from low-to-high population!" It completely killed the origin servers, then they shut them down. It was really unfair that they were dishonest, but developers never report bad news, so they say nothing or they lie.

 

This makes me think that LucasArts may be calling the shots, or else the PR department is made up of the same people.

[InnerPieces]

This makes me think that LucasArts may be calling the shots, or else the PR department is made up of the same people.

 

I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt LucasArts is putting any sort of input at all into network management or any of the other technical aspects of running an MMO. I think it is more likely LucasArts would concentrate solely on issues directly involving the Intellectual Property that is the Star Wars franchise.

 

I personally think it is more likely BioWare picked up some of the same people (or use the same PR firm as SOE), they are following what other games have done, or PR folks are learning the same techniques (either in school or from whichever PR firm they come from).

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This post is meant to be conversational and is in no way intended to be rude, mocking, or negative in any way toward any community member.

[Tuscad]

I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt LucasArts is putting any sort of input at all into network management or any of the other technical aspects of running an MMO. I think it is more likely LucasArts would concentrate solely on issues directly involving the Intellectual Property that is the Star Wars franchise.

 

I personally think it is more likely BioWare picked up some of the same people (or use the same PR firm as SOE), they are following what other games have done, or PR folks are learning the same techniques (either in school or from whichever PR firm they come from).

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This post is meant to be conversational and is in no way intended to be rude, mocking, or negative in any way toward any community member.

 

I agree with you about LucasArts not caring and being involved the more likely scenario, I thought it through even more after hitting submit. Didn't Dallas and James both work on galaxies? If so I would say that they picked up they same PR department too.

 

(You don't need to use a disclaimer with me, I know you don't mean anything rude. )

Edited July 12, 2012 by Tuscad

[ileriaone]

I am wondering how waiting to log in to play on a massively overcrowded server for 10 minutes is "improving my play experience"

 

all its going to do is improve the chances that I'll play something else.

[bnbuzzsaw]

My problem is I do not want to go to a full server, because I dont want crazy lag when im in the fleet or certain areas. I like being on a light pop server. But the only server I can transfer to is very heavy. Why is that?

[Luap]

listen people they gave the player base a choose to move. and sadly most people dead. if let say people didn't then they won't have marge them. But they did i know i look at my old server and it may have 4 ppl in fleet now. so hey sorry to those 4. if that number was like 100 it would have been safe but 4. really. server need to shut down. sorry. the mass es have voted by moving freely. the few is left behind. and force to do what the masses want. that life.

 

This made me laugh. EPIC post.

[Luap]

I'm not suggesting they are rewarding people that already transferred, but they WOULD be rewarding people that aren't transferring by caving and making a new server and then transferring all the holdouts to the new server.

 

NO ONE wanted to lose names, .....

 

It is possible that merging the remaining servers into one light server could have been the plan all along. It would not be so much caving and rewarding holdouts as it would be making two different player types happy. The player base that wanted more populated servers were given an option to go to one place while the playerbase who stuck around were obviously happy with light population. Merging the remainder would keep them still on light and all would be happy. The problem is that they did not tell anyone if this was the plan and thus many people transferred thinking it was that or nothing.

 

Sure I would imagine that everyone would have rather kept thier names if given the choice but those who chose to move and lose them obviously found it to be less necessary than those who have not.

[Sunaness]

I'm on Kath Hound (RP). I run a very active guild full of folks who for one reason or another preferred to stay in their destination server. Some of those reasons are:

> Our names were taken and we were unwilling to change them, as some members played early in order to take their desired name. To a casual player, this might seem "silly", but as an MMO RPer, a name is an extremely important piece of game play. An identity that transcends the in-game display.

> "The more people per server the better?" Wrong. We purposefully chose a low pop server to be able to enjoy the game without having to battle for objectives, and to feel as if our role in the storyline is richer. Some members who have created alts on our destination server felt that the merging of three servers into one creates too much of a competition for easy objectives and makes spawn time a nightmare.

> The community. To be honest, too many people all chatting it up can flood the chat, too many people means an increase in negative dis-inhibition, leading to more rude crass members being snarky in the general chats and less friendly jabber.

> We aren't interested in PVP, a few times we've gotten enough people on to trigger a guild warzone as an event, and that's enough for us. We're here for the storyline and friendship.

 

We've been paying members from the beginning, have had to band together in order to maintain our dying server from becoming useless. We have designated crafters for item making so the market is never dead, we have 15+ people in the chat at any point so Heroics and mission groups are easy to make, and we're all familiar with one another and never come across behavioral problems.

 

And we get nothing for putting up with you correcting your mistakes and sacrificing our server? We have inconvenienced ourselves just as much as people who in reality did nothing, they got lucky and were on a destination server and accepted new players to their server. We've felt the consequences of deciding that our identities we paid for were more important than dealing with the drawbacks of funneling servers together in order to "fix" things. Does that seem right?

 

On top of that now you're literally bribing people off their destination servers? You're dealing the final blow to these already fragile origin servers even more. Let us have the opportunity to switch to a server of our choosing, one where we saved a backup name, have connections to the community, doesn't have a 30 minute wait time every evening. Don't bribe and pick and drag our poor server through the mud, letting us tell our members we're okay as long as we stick together while you plot ways to harass us until we're decimated. (We really don't appreciate the hourly Server Admin announcements. I think every one knows by now without literal harassment popping up across our screens every. hour. Put an end to it.). Don't take what little of a community you left us with without giving us more options.

 

We've obviously felt the need to stay on our origin servers for a reason. Forcing us to move to a server you deem fit for us is horrible, I feel cheated and lied to.

[dvldogjoe]

I transferd and was told that i would be getting a pet and some black hole commendations but haven't seen anything on the toons that i did transfer any idea on when they will be given?