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

[Vespassian]

This is also my main concern. My names, as dumb as it may sound to others, are the most important part of the game. I've been using them for years as others have used theirs for years who do not want to lose them.

 

I will unsub if I lose them. I don't want to, but it just wouldn't be the same or as fun without them.

 

I can definitively agree with that. I'd feel horrible if I lost my Legacy name.

[Jonoku]

So is it possible for bioware to fix all the issues before GW2 release/early access, just out of curiosity. I was looking at an article in the game informer, EA is failing as a company, bioware should be a independent company again. Edited July 12, 2012 by Jonoku

[Retro_Chrome]

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

 

if you didnt see the inevitability of the server mergers you are blind

[Retro_Chrome]

and this does concern me as it shows how people over react to thingsthat were completely obvious. seriously, they mentioned "mega servers" when they first started transfers, the entire population was talking about how servers were dead and how there were to many servers...etc...

 

and if you are insulted by this then you are one of the people who were blind...its simple really, bioware catered to people during release and headstart who didnt want to wait in qs so they opened more servers...honeymoon period ends people leave and get bored=lots of empty servers...bioware caters again to people who whine about empty servers..they make megaservers and encourage you to move on your own, then force the remaining people on dead servers to move into the new megaservers, this makes sense from a business perspective and it makes sense to enhance player experience. losing your name or legacy of choice was bound to piss people off, but its obviously better for the population of the game in general to do this then allow ten peopel who whine on the forums about dead servr, but wont move because they are far to attached to the legacy/character name.

 

i for one am thankful for bioware for doing this. but again i saw this coming from the initial transfers. the fact that you have no respect for a statement like mine says alot about you but that apparently may only be obvious to me...

Edited July 12, 2012 by Notannos
rude quote

[Mergon]

What gets me is that Bioware could have made their lives so much simpler by ignoring the anti-cross server Group Finder dweebs. If BW had gone with cross server LFG and implemented individual server transfers, many of the issues we are complaining about would go away.

 

Sure, implement the server transfers we have now along with incentives to get peeps to move off the lowest populated servers in order to shut them down. Implement forced moves for those accounts that have been inactive for 2-3 months or more.

 

This allows peeps to avoid name change issues. It allows peeps to enjoy playing on Light, less laggy servers if the want to. And it still allows peeps to find groups for fp, heroics, and similar content.

 

I'd also have implemented a cross-server chat with a drop down list of FP, OP and planet channels.

 

As it is, my destination server is full. If BW forces me to move, then I will unsub. GW2 should be out sometime in the next year or two. I'll play offline games till something decent comes along. I will NOT be buying BW games any more since they will have provent they are as bad as Blizzard for listening to their paying player community.

[HarleysRule]

What gets me is that Bioware could have made their lives so much simpler by ignoring the anti-cross server Group Finder dweebs. If BW had gone with cross server LFG and implemented individual server transfers, many of the issues we are complaining about would go away.

 

Sure, implement the server transfers we have now along with incentives to get peeps to move off the lowest populated servers in order to shut them down. Implement forced moves for those accounts that have been inactive for 2-3 months or more.

 

This allows peeps to avoid name change issues. It allows peeps to enjoy playing on Light, less laggy servers if the want to. And it still allows peeps to find groups for fp, heroics, and similar content.

 

I'd also have implemented a cross-server chat with a drop down list of FP, OP and planet channels.

 

As it is, my destination server is full. If BW forces me to move, then I will unsub. GW2 should be out sometime in the next year or two. I'll play offline games till something decent comes along. I will NOT be buying BW games any more since they will have provent they are as bad as Blizzard for listening to their paying player community.

 

The highlighted part here kills your idea. Those 160-180 servers they are going to close is going to result in forced character moves. You're not going to have your own private server where you can just x-server queue.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Notannos
reply to removed rude

[Jonoku]

idk about u guys but there are lots of issues that are a must fix before GW2. The current content and story is okay to me, but not the main thing I'm concerned about. Look I'm not a guy that complains about issues in every single mmo and just walk away and not like them. I know mmos will have issues but I still enjoy certain mmos even with their flaws but swtor is a different story for me. The reason being is the swtor positives aren't my concern, the issues that i want fixed in swtor are my concern. I can care less about current swtor positives, which means theres a problem, all the things that I like, has turned into a negative. Main Question is, can bioware really fix their flaws before GW2? It's laughable because the amount of issues idk if bioware can keep up, so its highly unlikely.

[DSpin]

I bought the game when it first came out but have been unable to play as much as I would like. I am looking for a RP-PvP server and a guild. I am a jedi consulor does anyone have any suggestions

[Ipea]

Move my toons from Prophecy of The Five to JC please.....

[InnerPieces]

What gets me is that Bioware could have made their lives so much simpler by ignoring the anti-cross server Group Finder <Rudeness removed so as to not get myself into trouble>. If BW had gone with cross server LFG and implemented individual server transfers, many of the issues we are complaining about would go away.

 

Actually, it was BW who was opposed to Cross Server LFG tools. I'm fairly certain (from everything I've ever read from the Devs on the issue) community input had nothing to do with it.

[llesna]

Any word on when we can expect more character slots to accommodate stranded toons on destination servers?

 

I'd like to know about more characters slot too.

 

I strongly desire at least sixteen!

[PlagaNerezza]

Hello everyone,

 

Please discuss the Character Transfer, Server Populations, and You (Part II) community blog in this thread.

 

Thank you!

 

Just so you know. I won't resub until my ability to have my PVP toons I had to abandon on the dead server are on the same server as the "alt" I leveled to play the game.

 

For me that is a deal breaker.

 

Pre-paid 6 months. Beta tester. Been all about this game since I heard you where making it.

 

Started Early Access on Naddist Rebels.

 

Abandoned with patch 1.2 the server as you indicated was the only way at the time to play populated.

 

You announced server moves with 1.3 that did not allow merged accounts.

 

If you want any further money from me I want my characters on one server. If you cannot do that right I won't pay you any money.

[PlagaNerezza]

and this does concern me as it shows how people over react to thingsthat were completely obvious. seriously, they mentioned "mega servers" when they first started transfers, the entire population was talking about how servers were dead and how there were to many servers...etc...

 

and if you are insulted by this then you are one of the people who were blind...its simple really, bioware catered to people during release and headstart who didnt want to wait in qs so they opened more servers...honeymoon period ends people leave and get bored=lots of empty servers...bioware caters again to people who whine about empty servers..they make megaservers and encourage you to move on your own, then force the remaining people on dead servers to move into the new megaservers, this makes sense from a business perspective and it makes sense to enhance player experience. losing your name or legacy of choice was bound to piss people off, but its obviously better for the population of the game in general to do this then allow ten peopel who whine on the forums about dead servr, but wont move because they are far to attached to the legacy/character name.

 

i for one am thankful for bioware for doing this. but again i saw this coming from the initial transfers. the fact that you have no respect for a statement like mine says alot about you but that apparently may only be obvious to me...

 

One could argue that getting a free character rename was given to you, which no one else who played on the servers got. And you could have ensured you got that simply by creating an alt.

[Tuscad]

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

 

Lemmings don't actually suicide by jumping off a cliff, a guy working for Disney manipulated them into it for the movie.The more you know. *Rainbow*

Edited July 12, 2012 by Tuscad

[Projawa]

Just wondering about when the forced character move happens, how will BW accommodate those players who have a total of more than 8 characters across both the origin and destination servers?

 

Does this scenario imply that they will be bumping the character slot limit prior to this event?

Edited July 13, 2012 by Projawa

[InnerPieces]

Just wondering about when the forced character move happens, how will BW accommodate those players who have a total of more than 8 characters across both the origin and destination servers?

 

Does this scenario imply that they will be bumping the character slot limit prior to this event?

 

For what it's worth, I wouldn't count on it. I think we will at least be waiting until 1.4 for more character slots. That is a guess I base on the very few things they've said about it lately (I forgot where I read it, but it was recent).

 

I do remember where I read the following, however. It is the response to the question about what will happen if your destination server already has 8 slots:

 

We will have more details and answers to questions like this one as quickly as possible. I know there will definitely be questions, and as soon as we have the information, we'll let you know! We know your characters are important to you and will work to ensure the transfer process is a smooth as possible when we begin automated transfers later this summer.

 

Personally, I'm hoping they open multiple destinations as the solution, but we shall see.

 

I hope the above helps to some degree. Remember, the community team won't release any information they haven't been authorized to release. In this economy, I'd want to keep my job too.

Edited July 13, 2012 by InnerPieces

[G_Rett]

So there have been some good ideas to create a few more servers to accommodate the players that have been holding out due reasons of overpopulation and loss of character names and legacy names. But is it financially feasible to do this? This is not a rhetorical question, I don't know the answer and would love any input from people in-the-know or someone from the Bioware staff themselves. I've done a bit of number crunching, but I'm missing some key variables: how much does it cost per month to keep an individual server running for this game and exactly how many active subscribers are there that are still on the Origin servers?

 

This is what I've put together so far:

 

This is a list of all the currently locked server types Categorized by region and language (none of the Asian Pacific servers are listed because they're all still open).

 

111 North American Servers

 

22 West Coast PvE

13 West Coast PvP

2 West Coast RP

1 West Caost RP-PvP

 

42 East Coast PvE

25 East Coast PvP

5 East Coast RP

1 East Coast RP-PvP

 

80 European Servers

 

18 English PvE

13 German PvE

4 French PvE

 

20 English PvP

10 German PvP

7 French PvP

 

2 English RP

2 German RP

1 French RP

 

1 English RP-PvP

1 German RP-PvP

1 French RP-PvP

 

Grand total of 191 locked servers.

 

If you count each of the sub categories, that would make for a total of 20 new destination servers needed to accommodate everyone that's been holding out till now.

 

Now, let's talk money.

We, the players, don't know how many people are still holding out on all of the origin servers, but I've read estimates in this thread of an average of 30 players per server. Granted there are far fewer than that on some servers, but then there's also some that have far more than that (I would assume anyway); 30's as conservative a guess with what we know so far and will be used to help clarify a few things. If you multiply 191 servers times the 30 some people on each of them, then we have an estimate of 5730 player paying to stay on their Origin server. Assuming that most of them are not currently in a 6 month subscription on account of recent history with the game in the last few months and it's effect on their perception of SWTOR, we can probably assume that the majority are paying $15 a month. Together they all generate about $85,950 a month. Again, that number shouldn't be taken as anything more than an educated estimation, but it's probably not too far over the target mark. I say "over", because if it's well under, then there's more money to be gained by keeping these players around.

 

So, that other variable I was looking for was how much does it cost to keep a server running. I really don't know what kind of hardware they're using. I've been told that servers really only need to deal in raw code output, which means they don't need to worry about graphics and the strain that puts on a machine (graphics are handled by the players computer). If anyone has a decent idea of how much it would cost to run a server that might have at max 287 players on it at once (an estimate of 5730 players divided by 20 severs is 286.5), do please chime in, I would even accept a heckle. If that cost multiplied by 20 is something under the amount of revenue brought in by the current hold-outs on the origin servers, then it would be fiscally less risky to not make them transfer to overpopulated/near-overpopulated servers where they may not get to hold on to their names and may very well just unsubscribe.

 

TL;DR version:

if the cost of 20 more servers is less than the amount of money generated by the subscribed players that have chosen to not transfer yet, then it would probably be best to not risk them unsubscribing by forcing them to transfer to the current available Destination servers. The alternative to make 20 more Destination servers would be a definite financial boon.

[NICKjnp]

What I'm frustrated about is how clogged the servers are. There are simply too many people on at a time. This causes some people serious lag and basically make me frustrated to the point of no longer playing. Does BW have any plans to address this issue? It has gotten much much worse since 1.3 was released. I wish I could go back to my old dead server...at least I could move around the fleet and didn't have lag spikes every twenty seconds.

[MadBlue]

What I'm frustrated about is how clogged the servers are. There are simply too many people on at a time. This causes some people serious lag and basically make me frustrated to the point of no longer playing. Does BW have any plans to address this issue?

 

Yes, they do. Daniel Erickson and James Ohlen talk about it in their respective interviews. With the remaining characters being transferred later this summer (could be as early as July 31th - since the transfer rewards end on July 30th) and the free trials have already begun, hopefully they'll implement solutions soon (and not soon™).

[HarleysRule]

TL;DR version:

if the cost of 20 more servers is less than the amount of money generated by the subscribed players that have chosen to not transfer yet, then it would probably be best to not risk them unsubscribing by forcing them to transfer to the current available Destination servers. The alternative to make 20 more Destination servers would be a definite financial boon.

 

Devils advocate time: How many people would cancel that already transferred if BW caved to the holdouts and let them keep their names after everyone else had to lose names?

 

They aren't going to open a bunch of new servers for the special snowflakes that feel they are more entitled to keep their names than the tens/hundreds of thousands of people that already transferred. You aren't that important.

 

How many times does this have to be said before people accept reality? Good God...

Edited July 13, 2012 by HarleysRule

[Eborix]

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.

 

 

 

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

 

Theres also something to be said for taking your money and going elsewhere when you discover that the game isn't going to allow you to play the way you want.

[InnerPieces]

They aren't going to open a bunch of new servers for the special snowflakes that feel they are more entitled to keep their names than the tens/hundreds of thousands of people that already transferred. You aren't that important.

 

Maybe if you could stop insulting people they might care what you think.

Edited July 13, 2012 by InnerPieces

[HarleysRule]

Maybe if you could stop insulting people they might care what you think. What makes your opinion so much more important than anyone else's? Why do you feel so entitled to be obeyed?

 

Honestly, people have just as much right to vent their frustrations as you think you have to insult them for it.

 

LOL where did I suggest I should be obeyed? I also don't claim my opinion is more important, just that it's based on reality. Want to bet money I'm right?

 

Some delicate flower in prelaunch got offended that I laughed at the idea that people in prelaunch guilds would get priority in early access, when it was clearly stated that EA was based purely on preorder registration date. Sorry if you think trying to get people to live in the real world and realize they aren't more important than the rest of BW's customers is insulting.

Edited July 13, 2012 by HarleysRule

[InnerPieces]

LOL where did I suggest I should be obeyed? I also don't claim my opinion is more important, just that it's based on reality. Want to bet money I'm right?

 

I know you're right, but you can express that opinion without all the insults. Belittling people does not prove your point.

Edited July 13, 2012 by InnerPieces

[MadBlue]

Theres also something to be said for taking your money and going elsewhere when you discover that the game isn't going to allow you to play the way you want.

 

By all means quit then, but don't blame it on your "discovery". The game was meant to be played on highly populated servers - that's what the "MM" in "MMO" means. The overview of the game says:

Play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and be the hero of your own Star Wars™ saga in a story-driven massively-multiplayer online game from BioWare and LucasArts.

 

It doesn't say "play online with up to 20 of your friends". The fact that so many servers were at low population was an extremely bad thing and was never what BioWare was hoping for.

 

Honestly, though, Have you even tried one of the destination servers? Or are you going on what other people who have also not transferred have said? Granted, people's experiences may vary, but I've never had a kill or node stolen on The Shadowlands. People will generally invite you to their group if they see that you're on the same quest. Also, Fleet aside, people tend to be so spread out, it's not like everyone is on top of one another except maybe for level 50 dailies.

 

... unless you're talking about names, because I'm not sure if "must have the name I want" is a play style.