Consolidated Post: APAC/Oceanic Server Concerns

[Palar]

Well i've played on the Harbinger and Queues pop in under 1 min PVP and Group finder

 

Much better than 30 mins +

 

Well, as long as you're happy - me? I do (did) that with my guild... fun while it lasted, too, but we had to be screwed over for puggers.

[DiamondDove]

All of the European server populations are light at the moment ..... will they be the next to go?

[WasteGate]

Some stats from my connection in NSW via Optus Premium (100Mb) cable.

 

165ms to The Harbinger is OK in my books.

Not as great as 12ms to Master Dar'Nala but it's still faster than my tests to WoW (Blackrock) servers which is 210ms. Just wish I could transfer PvP to PvE server as I have joined a new guild on The Harbinger.

 

APAC SERVER -pathping to Master Dar'Nala

Tracing route to 175.45.88.217 over a maximum of 30 hops

 

0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx local pc

1 yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy local router

2 10.85.0.1

3 198.142.160.49

4 119.225.208.177

5 * * *

Computing statistics for 100 seconds...

Source to Here This Node/Link

Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address

0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

0/ 100 = 0% |

1 0ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy

0/ 100 = 0% |

2 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.85.0.1

0/ 100 = 0% |

3 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 198.142.160.49

0/ 100 = 0% |

4 12ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 119.225.208.177

 

Trace complete.

USA SERVER -pathping to The Harbinger

Tracing route to 159.153.69.10 over a maximum of 30 hops

 

0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx local pc

1 yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy local router

2 10.85.0.1

3 198.142.160.53

4 211.29.126.89

5 203.208.192.21

6 203.208.171.33

7 64.125.13.5

8 209.66.92.102

9 159.153.68.42

10 159.153.69.10

 

Computing statistics for 250 seconds...

Source to Here This Node/Link

Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address

0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

0/ 100 = 0% |

1 0ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy

0/ 100 = 0% |

2 10ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.85.0.1

0/ 100 = 0% |

3 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 198.142.160.53

0/ 100 = 0% |

4 10ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 211.29.126.89

0/ 100 = 0% |

5 167ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 203.208.192.21

0/ 100 = 0% |

6 171ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 203.208.171.33

0/ 100 = 0% |

7 170ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 64.125.13.5

0/ 100 = 0% |

8 165ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 209.66.92.102

0/ 100 = 0% |

9 169ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 159.153.68.42

0/ 100 = 0% |

10 165ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 159.153.69.10

 

Trace complete.

Edited March 26, 2013 by WasteGate

[Dropfall]

I just took a quick count of all the Imp players I could on Dalborra, give or take a few dozen for WZs, in ships, and other places I didnt search and the Imp side alone is around 280+ players. Add in the Pub side and you have nearly 600 players on Dalborra alone, and we're several hours off peak time. There is no excuse to say combining all 3 APAC servers would be unpopulated and unviable from a gaming perspective.

[soneil]

Some stats from my connection in NSW via Optus Premium (100Mb) cable.

 

165ms to The Harbinger is OK in my books.

Not as great as 12ms to Master Dar'Nala but it's still faster than my tests to WoW (Blackrock) servers which is 210ms. Just wish I could transfer PvP to PvE server as I have joined a new guild on The Harbinger.

 

APAC SERVER -pathping to Master Dar'Nala

 

USA SERVER -pathping to The Harbinger

 

Similar to my experience. I really haven't found that ping times to US servers are that much different. As as you pointed out it was also bigger for me on WOW (which I should point out never had servers hosted in australia which was never a big issue).

[Palar]

I just took a quick count of all the Imp players I could on Dalborra, give or take a few dozen for WZs, in ships, and other places I didnt search and the Imp side alone is around 280+ players. Add in the Pub side and you have nearly 600 players on Dalborra alone, and we're several hours off peak time. There is no excuse to say combining all 3 APAC servers would be unpopulated and unviable from a gaming perspective.

 

"There's PvPers... even though OWPvP can't function in the game... and those RPers that we don't support with anything..."

 

Some bean-counter slashed the server farm, even if they're trying to spin that it's for our benefit.

[PseudoScience]

Guys it's about cost cutting in a game that they wanted to be a cash cow but they turned it into a dog. They were never listening to the community from the start, our future was already decided in a boardroom months ago!

[Icykill_]

Gav daragon never even gets close to that. Most of the time it's more like 20-30 on fleet and that's during busier times. If you want to do any group content you pretty much have to schedule it. Good luck ever getting sub 50 group finder to pop.

 

So if we all merged into 1 APAC server and Bio made the following changes... then there would be enough people to solve the problem that everyone on the other servers seems to have a problem with... on Dalbora we are content with the way things are

 

THERE is a solution and it is SO EASY I can't believe you aren't going to implement it.

- RP players play the game so they can talk to each other in the game and "live" the character... Why not just create a different chat channel for them so that they can continue to play this way... it might even allow them to try PVP if they so choose.

- PVP players play the game to play other players. This can still happen on a PVE server because IF you are a PVP player you CAN flag yourself for PVP. This would allow other PVPer's to see they want to play as a PVPer

You could ALSO open up some more map area's on the Planets that are dedicated to PVP, also having a Duelling area on the Fleet would be good. AND they could also have a separate chat channel.

- PVE players can play both PVE, PVP and RP if they so choose. Consolidating the 3 APAC servers into 1 PVE server STILL ALLOWS ALL 3 GAME STYLES with little or no change in the community game play. This is by far,

more fair to everyone who plays the game. Sure there maybe some small changes, but they can be worked around.

[Elysiah]

I'm seeing a lot of people here trying to speak on behalf of everyone else here. Firstly I'm seeing people from dalbora saying there's no population problems. Try playing on gav daragon if that's the case and see what it's like to be in group finder for hours at a time during peak times without a pop.

For the people complaining about ping times - Like many people I played on a US server for several months before apac servers even existed and I never remember having a big problem with ping. Only reason I moved to the APAC servers when that option presented itself was so I could play on a server with people in the same timezone. Perhaps ping an issue is if you're hardcore pvp but then again hardcore pvpers have a habit of forgetting that the game doesn't revolve around pvp. I had to laugh at the people saying they'd go back to wow because of ping. Wow as far as I'm aware has never had servers physically hosted in australia. Their apac servers are hosted overseas so the ping is no different from their US servers. And considering how much that game has sucked since cataclysm I'm not interested in going back there.

My only problem with this announcement is how long it's taken. Promises about action began in the middle of last year which is about how long ago the NA servers were merged to fix their population issues. Should have just done ours back then rather than the whole 'wait and see how FTP pans out'. I wish we had a choice of servers to go to. There's more than on RP server for instance and I'd rather go to the one that the people on my old server ended up on rather than just being shifted on to a particular one.

 

Pretty much^

[Satelerevan]

Eric, and Bioware Team. I know this decision did not come down easily but as its probably meant for the best. Within the benefit of doubt, as you are going ahead with this idea there is a request that you guys should consider. As the community has been hurt by this. Yes, I can see it but truth to be told whenever I do play on the Harbinger server its very good and all activity wise.

 

In doing so, I'd like to recommend you should look at the idea of granting us a refund bundle pack with cartel coins invested and what not to make up for it. But this is an idea I had in mind. I do know that for people who would have the same legacy name on both servers we would loose it. So I ask you to give us something to compensate for that.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Satelerevan

[DarthBrundleFLY]

Hey everyone,

 

Why did we decide not to merge the three APAC servers into one large APAC server? We decided this for two main reasons. 1. The issue in doing this is that two play-styles (PvE, PvE-RP, or PvP) would need to sacrifice their desired play-style in order to have one server with a higher population. We feel that it is important that each player is allowed to continue to play SWTOR in their preferred play-style. Therefore, accommodating all the existing play-styles was a primary goal. By allowing you to move to a NA West server, you will be able to keep your play-style. 2. The move to North American servers better delivers on our ultimate goal of providing the best play experience, with the most possible players, long term.

 

I will continue to provide updates as soon as I have them. I know the next big question will be “when” and as soon as I have that information to release, I will do so. Thank you for your continued patience on this. I know it took longer than you would have liked but I intend to continue to give you information as soon as I can!

 

-eric

 

So let me get this straight, for fear of upsetting a relatively low percentage ( say 5-10%) of people who would be upset if they were to lose their preferred server type if our 3 servers were merged into 1 you in your Bioware wisdom decided it would be far better to upset the majority of your APAC player base (lets say 90-98%) by shutting our servers down and arbitrarily moving us to the server of YOUR choice, which we have no say in at all.

 

Good job Bioware at least you are consistent in always choosing the most unwanted and disliked option available for your playerbase.

[Dracoum]

this is crap now i'm going to be forced to play with around 200 ping and with 200 ping this game starts becoming unplay able in pVp

[Darka]

Asia/Pacific Region has been downa bumpy road since the whole Red Zone incident, Im not surprised this is the result.

[ZinBladez]

haha omg they can't be serious wake up idiots, EAWARE has made their decision. END OF DISCUSSION

 

all this whinging on the forums isnt going to change anything if you're not happy with the solution then by all means leave and stop posting garbage on the forums making the rest of the APAC community look bad.

 

But if you're like myself then just be happy that something is being done and we can now play with other people because less than 100 people on either fleet is a dead server, I know Dalborra looked ok but it was losing players and heaps of AU players have just re rolled on the US servers because unlike you they realise actually playing the game with a good pop is far more important than ping, playstyle and timezone isssue

 

Let me be the first to actually THANK EAWARE for doing something, because you all sound like a bunch of children who didnt get what they want for christmas (just be thankful you got anything at all)

 

i'd rather they do nothing than this. and we're not children, WE ARE PAYING CUSTOMERS AND HAVE THE RIGHT TO COMPLAIN THAT THE SERVICE WE'RE GETTING IS INADEQUATE. you may be used to bending over and recieving it in your *** but we're not. we're sick of being treated like dog ****. want some fking honesty from people we give our money to!

[Satelerevan]

Asia/Pacific Region has been downa bumpy road since the whole Red Zone incident, Im not surprised this is the result.

 

Neither am I. But as much as I had enjoyed the game so much. I was on the US server originally then moved to the APAC and now going back there, its just another day on SWTOR...

[Elysiah]

You guys reply sooo quickly. I wrote a post a few pages back with the following petition for merging the APAC servers into 1 local APAC server.

 

Get on board if you please, the signatures are already starting to pile up. Pass the word around to your guildies and friends.

 

PETITION TO MERGE 3 APAC SERVERS INTO 1 LOCAL APAC SERVER

 

Dont waste your time as i said before a petition will do nothing. if they have announced it its happening BL to all you people desperately trying to hold onto your dying servers. I, for one am glad this is happening.

[PPAlien]

Similar to my experience. I really haven't found that ping times to US servers are that much different. As as you pointed out it was also bigger for me on WOW (which I should point out never had servers hosted in australia which was never a big issue).

 

But remember we have WA players who already have minimum 50ms pings to the East Coast, then factor in the extra journey (routing will be via east coast Australia for sure) to the US, they will be getting up towards the 500ms range. In a game that has 1s channelled casts that require interrupts, that is going to require them to use the force to predict the upcoming interrupt and respond preemptively.

 

KEEP APAC SERVERS FOR SW:TOR AVAILABLE AND MERGE THEM INTO 1

[Elysiah]

Yea because 100 people on fleet is a ghost town, sorry not everyone needs 400+ on fleet to even play.

Sorry but for an MMO thats pretty bad.

And what about the other 2 servers? 20-50 people on the fleet on peak hours

Im 100% behind these servers going.

 

The lag would be bearable and boo hoo people dont get to keep their names. (not a huge deal)

[MrRuck]

However, the one common theme from the suggestions, which we heard clearly, is that everyone wants the opportunity to play on higher populated servers.

So if we don't oppose a population boost (merge with Dalborra) that means we want to leave our server? Talk about giving us a loaded question.

 

It couldn't have been made more obvious what the majority of the APAC community wanted.

We went and looked at what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the population problems. Even with that solution you would still see long queue times for things like Warzones and Group Finder. It was because of this that we decided that moving APAC into the NA servers was the best option.

Just prior to reading your initial post, I was doing 50 PvP at 3AM server time (Tuesday morning). Dalborra is fine.

Edited March 26, 2013 by MrRuck

[Elysiah]

If you don't like the solution Don't Play the game..Simple

 

haha Yep pretty much, no one is forcing you guys to sub, seems like its the 100 people from dal that have the problem..

[Icykill_]

If BIO are so committed to moving us to the NA servers... Maybe to make the game "fair" to ALL players... APAC and NA alike... how about they add a lag modifier to increase lag to the NA players so that we all get close to 200ms Latency... that would fix the lag issue

 

I know this will never happen because they would lose all those NA players... and it would be unfair to them as well...

BUT if you are so concerned about being "fair"... then that would be the only solution... you could then merge the EU servers too... if everyone had the same Latency... it would be a level playing field... that would save you money too...

Good luck keeping the game afloat with your attitude of ignoring the majority of the community and only focusing on the old $ sign...

 

EA, you need to get in touch with your player base... it might have been ok to behave like this 20 years ago when the largest percentage of players were between 12 and 18 and we would change games monthly... but the statistics now show that the majority of gamers are in their 30's and 40's... we like to play to relax after working all day/week... we don't have time to jump to multiple games all the time... we invest a fair bit of time in a game...

EA/BIO PLEASE LISTEN TO REASON.... and LISTEN TO THE COMMUNTIY FEED BACK... if not, you will lose your game base, not just to SWTOR, but to all games as people walk away from your brand.

 

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/keep-apac-servers-for-swtor-available-and-merge-them-into-1.html

Edited March 26, 2013 by Icykill_
Add something

[Elysiah]

100% AGREE

EVERYONE SHOULD SIGN THIS.... if there is a big enough response and if it is public and BIO don't do something, it could turn into a PR nightmare for them... even better if it went viral... maybe a Facebook page would be good to???

 

Wasting your time. Eaware dont care about a couple hundred sigs.

[GHoppa]

I am laughing my absolute *ss off at all the rage in this thread.

 

I was going to type out all my thoughts about everything, but then realized its pretty much pointless, and i'm just going to continue to laugh.

 

Btw, <The Elite> is currently recruiting all good PvPer's for rateds on the Bastion.

[PseudoScience]

This whole fiasco is like putting toothpaste back into the tube and you wonder why the community is angry. First you give us APAC servers to enjoy optimal ping/latency and take them away again.

 

I get that some players wanted to go to the US servers for population issues but they should have offered unrestricted transfers to any APAC server and monitored where the community went and then acted accordingly! Instead they let the hammer fall and destroyed the servers with no recourse for players to take. I'd be more than happy to stay on my APAC server with the population we have now.

Edited March 26, 2013 by PseudoScience

[soneil]

But remember we have WA players who already have minimum 50ms pings to the East Coast, then factor in the extra journey (routing will be via east coast Australia for sure) to the US, they will be getting up towards the 500ms range. In a game that has 1s channelled casts that require interrupts, that is going to require them to use the force to predict the upcoming interrupt and respond preemptively.

 

KEEP APAC SERVERS FOR SW:TOR AVAILABLE AND MERGE THEM INTO 1

 

I am a WA player so for me there really isn't much difference in latency between US and apac servers. Most games don't have servers hosted locally. WOW doesn't. That's the biggest MMO and despite the number of complaints people might have about that game, complaints about ping in pvp is not one you hear a lot. They have APAC servers but they've always been hosted in the US.