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

[InnerPieces]

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.

 

That would be great! But then, I'd want to move back. Well, I already want to move back and my request for that have been completely ignored, of course. I guess we'll see what happens, though.

[InnerPieces]

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?

 

August 7

[Modredus]

Hello Star Wars: The Old Republic,

 

Let me start off with congratulating you on a great game! This game is a very enjoyable game to play, plenty of content, good story lines, excellent graphics, a really, really good game. Very few problems, except for the recent lag situation which you appear to have corrected. All in all, a most pleasant experience in game playing.

 

This is why the near future in SWTOR appears scary. The need to combine the existing “Light” realms into a few, already over-populated realms is cause for concern with some players. I play on the “Sedyn Kyne” realm along with my son. You wish us to move over to the “Jedi Covenant”, which as I type this, 11:30 PM on a Wednesday evening is still shown as being “HEAVY”! Still heavy at 11:30 at night? You do not think that is over-populated? You still want more of us to transfer to that realm? You locked out 111 “light” realms in favor of only 12 realms which are either: heavy, very heavy or full!

 

My sons, my friends and I played WOW since the day it came out. We left not long ago because their game was no longer a “game” but a JOB! Casual, solo players were not “part of that game” any longer. It became a place primarily for the hard core raiders and PVPers.

 

SWTOR was a breath of fresh air after WOW! Here was a game which was just as enjoyable, content wise, as was WOW but without all the hassles of the large raids and their restrictions and rules. Here, a player could enjoy the game, without having the requirement to run large teams. The player’s story line did not require any heroics or raid just to complete it. The player was free to play as they wished, solo their story, team when they wanted to. Another thing, even the heroics are more user friendly with the maximum number required being 8 players, vice 25 or 40. With the companions out, most only required 2 actual players to complete. Much more user friendly! KUDOS

 

Although this game still lacks somewhat in the level 50 craftable gear, the ability to have modifiable gear and better mods from the dailies and Corellia mods vendor, almost equals it out. I have very good gear on my level 50 smuggler without having to do any heroics, enough where I can survive the dailies and still have plenty of fun doing them.

 

And to those who do enjoy the heroics, they get even better gear and have fun doing it! This is a game, not a job.

When we decided on what realm to start on, my son selected Sedyn Kyne because it was a light realm. We enjoy the freedom to play without having to fight against tons of other players for the same resources. If we wanted that over-population, we would have stayed in WOW. I cannot imagine how many players are trying to kill that same boss from the Area quest in The Black Hole to complete that quest. What are they doing, “Take a number and stand in line for your turn”? That isn’t my idea of fun, but then again no one asked me, did they?

 

I have spoken with a few of the remaining players on this realm and they do not wish to move either. They enjoy this realm for the same reasons as I have just said. Freedom to choose, solo or team. When I have needed a partner to team with, there was always someone on who would help. Teaming for a flash point or so isn’t impossible.

 

We are wondering what SWTOR intends to do on 30 July to those of us who prefer not to move into the crowed realms. Will we be forced to move? Will we be moved without our consent or knowledge? Will we just log on the next day and see our characters in a different realm with different names? SWTOR knows these answers, will you tell us the answers?

 

SWTOR, you have what I consider the best game of its type at this time. Leave the players in the light realms where they are. If they had wanted to move into those crowded realms by now, they would have done so already. The fact that we haven’t means we like your game just the way it is right now, simple, uncomplicated, but most of all FUN! STOP the forced mergers!

 

Thank you!

Edited July 12, 2012 by Modredus

[Tuscad]

Hello Star Wars: The Old Republic,

Let me start off with congratulating you on a great game! This game is a very enjoyable game to play, plenty of content, good story lines, excellent graphics, a really, really good game. Very few problems, except for the recent lag situation which you appear to have corrected. All in all, a most pleasant experience in game playing.

This is why the near future in SWTOR appears scary. The need to combine the existing “Light” realms into a few, already over-populated realms is cause for concern with some players. I play on the “Sedyn Kyne” realm along with my son. You wish us to move over to the “Jedi Covenant”, which as I type this, 11:30 PM on a Wednesday evening is still shown as being “HEAVY”! Still heavy at 11:30 at night? You do not think that is over-populated? You still want more of us to transfer to that realm?

 

You locked out 111 “light” realms in favor of only 12 realms which are either: heavy, very heavy or full!

My sons, my friends and I played WOW since the day it came out. We left not long ago because their game was no longer a “game” but a JOB! Casual, solo players were not “part of that game” any longer. It became a place primarily for the hard core raiders and PVPers.

 

SWTOR was a breath of fresh air after WOW! Here was a game which was just as enjoyable, content wise, as was WOW but without all the hassles of the large raids and their restrictions and rules. Here, a player could enjoy the game, without having the requirement to run large teams. The player’s story line did not require any heroics or raid just to complete it. The player was free to play as they wished, solo their story, team when they wanted to. Another thing, even the heroics are more user friendly with the maximum number required being 8 players, vice 25 or 40. With the companions out, most only required 2 actual players to complete. Much more user friendly! KUDOS

Although this game still lacks somewhat in the level 50 craftable gear, the ability to have modifiable gear and better mods from the dailies and Corellia mods vendor, almost equals it out. I have very good gear on my level 50 smuggler without having to do any heroics, enough where I can survive the dailies and still have plenty of fun doing t

them.

 

And to those who do enjoy the heroics, they get even better gear and have fun doing it! This is a game, not a job.

When we decided on what realm to start on, my son selected Sedyn Kyne because it was a light realm. We enjoy the freedom to play without having to fight against tons of other players for the same resources. If we wanted that over-population, we would have stayed in WOW. I cannot imagine how many players are trying to kill that same boss from the Area quest in The Black Hole to complete that quest. What are they doing, “Take a number and stand in line for your turn”? That isn’t my idea of fun, but then again no one asked me, did they?

 

I have spoken with a few of the remaining players on this realm and they do not wish to move either. They enjoy this realm for the same reasons as I have just said. Freedom to choose, solo or team. When I have needed a partner to team with, there was always someone on who would help. Teaming for a flash point or so isn’t impossible.

We are wondering what SWTOR intends to do on 30 July to those of us who prefer not to move into the crowed realms. Will we be forced to move? Will we be moved without our consent or knowledge? Will we just log on the next day and see our characters in a different realm with different names? SWTOR knows these answers, will you tell us the answers?

 

SWTOR, you have what I consider the best game of its type at this time. Leave the players in the light realms where they are. If they had wanted to move into those crowded realms by now, they would have done so already. The fact that we haven’t means we like your game just the way it is right now, simple, uncomplicated, but most of all FUN! STOP the forced mergers!

 

Thank you!

 

Please put spaces in it at different paragraphs like the above^ It will make it easy to read, if you jumble it all together then people will be less likely to read it or your point will be missed and all of that typing will have gone to waste.

[ChristianGuy]

I am worried about basically the same thing: I am in a "light" server that is now "locked" for any new players. But I am in the "light server" by CHOICE, since there is no lag... and now especailly since some idiots that transfered to Drooga first STOLE some of my names (including a name that no one ever uses, but I know the guy from a guild that did that out of spite).

 

In any case... I think we are getting lost in the discussion....

 

The issues/concerns we all seem to have are:

 

1) Whether a "forced transfer" (whether you call it a "merger" or whatever will take place and if so, when and will we get a warning before the transfer/merger?

 

2) The name issue, which is irritating to many players to be forced unto a server that someone already has a cool name you have used for years. How can BioWare address that? (one idea is to allow symbols, which will enable people to have their name with a small mod and end the "naming issue"). Will we be forced into a new server or a "destination server" where we will lose our existing game toon names??

 

3) If we will be forced to move anyway, then why not move now (do we get a warning to make the move b4 being tossed there)???

 

4) Will the "mergers"/forced transfer be into a completely new server or into one of the already crowded servers... like Drooga's Barge or Harbringer?

 

I think until we get some real answers (e-mails BW seems fruitless, as I got a generic response). So unless a kind person from BioWare comes to this forum and answers questions/concerns we have, I think people will continue to be nervous and they will continue to lose members.

 

I hope (someone) can answer the 4 questions above.

 

Thanks!

Chris

[ileriaone]

 

1) Whether a "forced transfer" (whether you call it a "merger" or whatever will take place and if so, when and will we get a warning before the transfer/merger?

 

2) The name issue, which is irritating to many players to be forced unto a server that someone already has a cool name you have used for years. How can BioWare address that? (one idea is to allow symbols, which will enable people to have their name with a small mod and end the "naming issue"). Will we be forced into a new server or a "destination server" where we will lose our existing game toon names??

 

3) If we will be forced to move anyway, then why not move now (do we get a warning to make the move b4 being tossed there)???

 

4) Will the "mergers"/forced transfer be into a completely new server or into one of the already crowded servers... like Drooga's Barge or Harbringer?

 

I think until we get some real answers (e-mails BW seems fruitless, as I got a generic response). So unless a kind person from BioWare comes to this forum and answers questions/concerns we have, I think people will continue to be nervous and they will continue to lose members.

 

I hope (someone) can answer the 4 questions above.

 

Thanks!

Chris

 

all your answers mostly.. are here (see link below from BW). EVERYONE is being moved this summer to their selected high population servers. no one at Bioware cares about names, so if someone saw your name, thought it was cool and copied it, and is already on the server.. well, BW doesnt seem to care.

 

you can accept the bribe and move now, or you can hold out hope, and get moved anyway with nothing

 

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

Edited July 12, 2012 by ileriaone

[MadBlue]

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.

 

Of course people are free to speculate what the "original plan" was - and barring having a mole in BioWare, we'll never know what the Devs are actually thinking, but given that:

 

1) A month before transfers, Daniel Erickson said "we are coming up on a huge move to servers with massively higher population caps than we have today."

 

2) All the remaining characters on the origin servers are going to be automatically transferred to their destination servers at the end of the month.

 

It doesn't seem like merging the holdouts into one light server was part of the plan, and the people who transferred saw the writing on the wall for the origin servers.

 

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.

 

There is something to be said for adapting to situations that are beyond one's control.

[MadBlue]

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?

 

The answers are here.

[SidneyFault]

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.

 

 

I completely agree!!! I think we should start calling the customer service line and complaining.. flood the office with calls and maybe we can get their attention.

[YMLTWOTF]

Modredus;4837988]Hello Star Wars: The Old Republic,

Let me start off with congratulating you on a great game! This game is a very enjoyable game to play, plenty of content, good story lines, excellent graphics, a really, really good game. Very few problems, except for the recent lag situation which you appear to have corrected. All in all, a most pleasant experience in game playing.

This is why the near future in SWTOR appears scary. The need to combine the existing “Light” realms into a few, already over-populated realms is cause for concern with some players. I play on the “Sedyn Kyne” realm along with my son. You wish us to move over to the “Jedi Covenant”, which as I type this, 11:30 PM on a Wednesday evening is still shown as being “HEAVY”! Still heavy at 11:30 at night? You do not think that is over-populated? You still want more of us to transfer to that realm?[/i]

 

 

First off, I must say I agree with most if not all of what Modredus says in his/her post. I too came from WOW looking for an enjoyable environment to relax in my getting away from reality. When I first started characters in SWToR, it was on a busy server. I didn't last long and searched for a low population server. I found one. Everything was good. I've been enjoying just about everything within the game and even getting somewhat lost in my characters. But, that is probably due to the fact that I'm not in constant rushes to get a mission completed before 10 more players come after the same items I need to complete the mission. Or, maybe because I can explore the different areas without bothering anyone.

 

Whatever the reasons are that I've been enjoying SWToR are quickly coming to an end. First we were told, and I quote, "We still believe that you will enjoy playing on a higher population server and hope you'll take advantage of the service, but you won't be forced to transfer." to what is now, an apparent forced transfer. So I guess all of the posts I've read from other SWToR players who have expressed that they would prefer to stay on the low population servers they are currently on, myself included, are now being told we will enjoy being on a high population server.

 

Well, I don't know when or where along my journey I lost my right to decide where I would be most happy, but apparently I did lose that right as it is now being decided for me I'm now being told I will enjoy a heavy, very heavy, or full server.

 

I know it's not cast in stone as of yet, but I do hope that Bioware really does listen to it's community / paying customers. Not all of us wish to be on servers where there is always other players doing the same missions you are doing. Not all of us wish to be constantly invited to join guilds. Not all of us wish to have other players following us around to see what we're gonna do next or what we're going after. Some of us actually like to try and find the way to get to the Datacron without someone whispering to us to tell us how to do it. I could go on, but, the point that I'm trying to make is, some of us (and maybe alot of us) really enjoy the peaceful, quiet, easy-going nature of a low population server. Hence would be why, many of us have not jumped all over the free transfers.

 

Basically, I, and maybe others, have been waiting till all the folks that like busy servers to have what they wanted, and thought all along, that those of us on low pop servers would be fine if we chose to stay. Eventually down the road when more people start coming to SWToR, the low pop servers would get more new players as time goes on. That's how I remember WOW. 5 or 6 years ago, we had low pop realms on WOW, then just like the movies, "If you build it, they will come", the low pop realms started filling up.

 

Anyway, sorry if this is over length. It is the first time I really felt the need to submit my opinions. I really do hope Bioware is listening. It would be sad if some of us are forced to no longer play because we are put where we don't want to be.

 

Thank you for reading if you were able to make it all the way through it before getting bored

[SpacePiglet]

Hi,

 

Are you looking into transfer players from PVP to PVE and vice versa?

 

I don't know why it's not possible at the moment. Your FAQ doesn't give any valid reason...

 

My friends have chars on PVE server and I play on PVP server. They can't bring their chars over and they can't be bothered to make new chars on another server, they already have lots of chars...

 

How soon is this option available? Or it hasn't been look into yet?

[bassfu]

I completely agree!!! I think we should start calling the customer service line and complaining.. flood the office with calls and maybe we can get their attention.

 

All 15 of you will make a difference I'm sure.

[DarthCyanide]

All 15 of you will make a difference I'm sure.

 

make that 16 XD

[Locksley]

Why would I want to move my characters on a dead server to one your telling me to go to when i have new characters on a busy one that you wont let me move my old toons too?

 

So I started on Vulkar Highway, it was really busy when it started but folk fell away sure it was a pvp server but other than being ganked whilst levelling open world pvp means nothing in this game as its all war zones so we went to a eu server the Red Eclipse. I would love to know the logic in why I cant take my level 50's from Vulkar to join my level 50's on the Red Eclipse after all pvp servers mean jack in this game. But you will move my toons anyway to a place I wont use them, thanks for that.........

 

Why cant we just move our toons from any dead server to any destination server? why is that too hard to manage?

Edited July 12, 2012 by Locksley

[Baldak]

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?

 

Most of us understand that the game needs to be profitable and that keeping such an enormous number of light pop servers up and running would be a problem. However, taking all the severs and turning them into servers that have very heavy to full populations during peak times is also a problem. It would make more sense to have a cluster of Heavy pop servers for those that want that type of play, but retain a few meduim and light pop servers for those that prefer that type of play. Lets face it, the heavy pop servers are good for PvP, but are not good for (my style of) PvE.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Baldak

[Baldak]

A few corrections

l(L)isten people they gave the player base a choose (choice) to move.(,) and sadly most people dead (did). i(I)f(,) let(s) say people didn't(,) then they won't (wouldn't) have (to) marge (merge) them. But they did(.) i (I) know(,) i (I) look at my old server and it may have 4 ppl(people) in fleet now.( so hey sorry to those 4. i(I)f that number was like 100 it would have been safe but 4.(,) really. (That) server need(s) to shut down. s(S)orry.(,) the mass es (masses) have voted by moving freely. t(T)he (There are) few is(delete) left behind.(delete) and (they will be) force(d) to do what the masses want.(,) that('s) life.

 

This made me laugh. EPIC post.

 

Now to my point, the masses are not always right. Lemmings are a perfect example.

[Thyferra]

Most of us understand that the game needs to be profitable and that keeping such an enormous number of light pop servers up and running would be a problem. However, taking all the severs and turning them into servers that have very heavy to full populations during peak times is also a problem. It would make more sense to have a cluster of Heavy pop servers for those that want that type of play, but retain a few meduim and light pop servers for those that prefer that type of play. Lets face it, the heavy pop servers are good for PvP, but are not good for PvE.

 

I only play pvp from time to time. Most of my tme in this game is spend on pve. And i dont have any problems because of the high pop. Yes a few dailys might take a few minute longer but for the most part i can get them done as fast as before the transfers.

And for many people that are too shy to form their own groupd, heavy pop servers will help them finding a group through the group finder.

The only time heavy pop could be a problem is when everyone tries to do dailys on their own. But if you do them in groups they are really fast. Lets say you got 20 people in the bh area. If all of them are in groups its more like 5 people doing the dailys. But if everyone is doing them alone it will complicate things.

So always group up for dailys and you should not have a problem.

 

Edit: But i know grouping is a very noval concept to mmos

Edited July 12, 2012 by Thyferra

[ileriaone]

I only play pvp from time to time. Most of my tme in this game is spend on pve. And i dont have any problems because of the high pop. Yes a few dailys might take a few minute longer but for the most part i can get them done as fast as before the transfers.

And for many people that are too shy to form their own groupd, heavy pop servers will help them finding a group through the group finder.

The only time heavy pop could be a problem is when everyone tries to do dailys on their own. But if you do them in groups they are really fast. Lets say you got 20 people in the bh area. If all of them are in groups its more like 5 people doing the dailys. But if everyone is doing them alone it will complicate things.

So always group up for dailys and you should not have a problem.

 

Edit: But i know grouping is a very noval concept to mmos

 

I know this is a novel concept for MMO's but you have heard of quests right? my friend and I play together, so small group, doing a quest where you need to kill x number of something, and you have the usual crowd out there takes you a LOT longer to kill the quota because some large group has decided to be jerks and camp the or farm it for something.

 

basically just like SWG and the "iconic" classes they decided you wanted to play, now we are being told in here how we are supposed to play. and thats play in large groups or dont play at all. I prefer a bit more variety in my play than to be forced to join a large group all the time just to do a few quests.

[Vicen]

I certainly hope they will soon let us either transfer for free or paid to any server we want...My damn Jedi Guardian is rotting on a server!

[Aricus]

If you lost your name, you're not very original and deserve the opportunity to correct that mistake with a free name change upon arrival.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking as well. I transferred 3 characters from an origins server to a destination server and only 1 lost their name. But I had a feeling I'd lose that name since it was pretty common anyway but the other two were names I came up with and of course they were available.. Those who are upset with their names being lost are using common names that have probably been in type of written book or story, or in medias like movies or tv shows. And yet they're upset because they can't keep it when they don't even own it lol. Gawd I love the entitlement attitude these days.

 

Edit: Common folks.. Legolas, Spider-Man, Goku, Sephiroth, Cloud, Vade(a)r, Luke, Skywalker, Han Solo have all been used enough already...

Edited July 12, 2012 by Aricus

[Eborix]

A few days ago I had to cancel my account because of some rl issues making it so I can't afford to pay the subscription for a few months. I felt kinda sad, but I figured I could come back in a few months and play again.

 

Now I see that my characters will be forced onto a high pop server, where I will have to fight for spawns and nodes, I feel like my cancellation was just good timing.

 

Maybe, by the time I am ready to play an MMO again, someone will have one out where I can play it my way instead of their way.

 

I understand that its a business, and its all about maximizing profits, but my 15 a month will not be part of their profits any more.

 

To all those who enjoy lots of people on your servers, have fun. To that minority who, like me, prefer to have a smaller population server, Bioware is making it clear what they think of our way of playing.

 

Everyone have fun and be safe

[Sunaness]

I completely agree!!! I think we should start calling the customer service line and complaining.. flood the office with calls and maybe we can get their attention.

 

Thank you, and I also completely agree with your suggestion. They should at least funnel the light servers together, since they're mostly dead, the names won't be as big an issue and we'll still be at light capacity.

[JetAten]

It looks like they are just swinging from one extreme to another. Instead of having too many servers, now there will be too few. I went to Jedi Covenant, the server my current server was set to transfer to, and made a character just to see what was going on. All the starter areas were completely packed with people. There were hardly any mobs to be found and there was a virtual line of people waiting for spawns. Thats ridiculous. I play solo a lot and don't mind being on a low-pop server. I'm not sure whats going thru Bioware's mind, you force transfers to a limited number of servers at the same time you open up Free To Play? Thats kinda dumb. Now the lower level areas are completely flooded and virtually unplayable. If you don't keep some low-pop servers for those of us that don't want to wait in line to finish a quest, as soon as my current server is shut-down for good I'm cancelling my subscription. Its a shame because it is a good game but this development team seems to be way too reactionary in their decision making process. First you panicked and made too many servers, now you're panicking again and shoving everyone on to too few. I'm not confident in this team's ability to manage this game.

[Retro_Chrome]

if you didnt see this coming you are blind.

[danpen]

if you didnt see this coming you are blind.

 

What do you mean if we did not see this coming out.