Anyone else annoyed by crowded planets?

[TUXs]

Not at all, I love it in fact.

[CosmicKat]

It's a good sign that low level areas are packed.

 

It's a bad sign that the level 25+ areas are mostly empty. It tells me they are getting new people, but they (still) aren't staying.

[sepulhead]

Can some of you people find a happy place and at least enjoy that without complaining?

 

no it works like this

group a doen't like something and complains group b is happy and stays silent.

they change it group a in now happy, group b complains why did you change it.

[Kavu]

hell no, glad to see higher populations

[Rafaman]

It's a good sign that low level areas are packed.

 

It's a bad sign that the level 25+ areas are mostly empty. It tells me they are getting new people, but they (still) aren't staying.

 

I see your logic and it makes sense but... I'm not sure that is always true. It seems to me that outside of lowbie planets the population levels correlate to the "popularity" of the planet. What I mean is that planets that are more of a grind are less populated as opposed to planets that are more enjoyable. Taris on the Imp side and Balmorra on the pub side are good examples. I see lower populations there but mainly it is because, in my experience, people just want to get off those planets as fast as they can. Bonus series be damned. Alderann on the other hand is much more populated and maybe it is because people come back for the Bonus series and do not opt to skip it.

 

Huge generalizations to be sure, but my point is that even at higher levels it seems certain planets are player favorites while others are simply pass throughs.

[Urael]

It's a good sign that low level areas are packed.

 

It's a bad sign that the level 25+ areas are mostly empty. It tells me they are getting new people, but they (still) aren't staying.

 

My thoughts exactly.

[Goretzu]

Please decide already.... What's the problem? Crowded planets or not enough population?

 

Neither.

 

Zones not designed for 100-200 people in them.

 

That is the problem.

 

 

.

[DataBeaver]

No. I was annoyed and still somewhat am when Im the only person I see questing. Empty barren worlds are boring worlds and very immersion breaking.

And worlds where ten different people work independently to arrest the same criminal, have to compete against each other on who gets to arrest him first, and yet all of them get the criminal at the end do not break immersion? Or saving a world from a civil war, and two minutes after you leave, you see the next guy come in to save it again, because obviously they couldn't hold the peace?

 

Story-based open-world MMORPGs invariably strain immersion to a breaking point, because there's no way to write an interesting storyline that can accommodate an arbitrary number of players over an arbitrary period of time without any changes to the story itself. If the story is to be self-consistent over any number of repetitions, the player's actions must necessarily be insignificant, or at least easily reversible, and that makes it uninteresting.

 

It doesn't help that in many quests players have to compete over a finite number of resources, and the amount available is only slightly higher than the amount needed. That other guy just broke the thingamabob you were supposed to break? No problem, just wait over there for a minute until the auto-repair systems kick in, because it totally makes sense not to break that too, and one minute of downtime surely is enough to give an important tactical advantage to our side.

 

I find SW:TOR's storylines very good - the best I've seen in any MMORPG - but only as long as I completely ignore all other players. A possible exception are people grouped with me, if they are playing different classes. I don't mind the mere presence of other chosen ones too disturbing, but the competition for clicks is annoying.

[Keskie]

I wish there were more people in the other areas, not only the Fleet. I like my MMO's bustling.

[TaylaEwa]

The problem isn't with how many individual players are competing for mobs; it's with how many separate groups are competing for those mobs. Everyone is flying solo, and so every single person in the area is grabbing their own mob. Mobs run out fast with that strategy.

 

If you see someone on the same quest as you, try grouping with them. I guarantee you you'll have an easier time finding mobs to kill when you're working with the rest of the players in your area, instead of against them.

 

-Macheath.

 

This isn't entirely true.. some zones, like the Black Hole, are set to shard at way too high a population. The Black Hole area won't shard until 85 people. Let's say that every one of those people was in a 4 man group. That's 21 groups all going for 4 each of 11 boxes, 5 each of 18 scientists, 4 leaks each of around 12 nodes that spawn. Its gotten slightly better since they somewhat improved the respawn timers, but you can still be standing there waiting for a while, particularly if there are ninjas who don't care if they steal the node you've been patiently waiting for.

 

Before they retooled the timers, that area was pure hell after the server merges. Before the merges, I had it down to an art where I could complete all the missions except for the heroic in less than 20 min, before the reworking of timers after the merge, I had runs taking 1-2.5 HOURS, JUST for the Black Hole. For someone like me who maybe only has 2-3 hours of playing time a night.. it was extremely frustrating.

[MiraniSedai]

It's a good sign that low level areas are packed.

 

It's a bad sign that the level 25+ areas are mostly empty. It tells me they are getting new people, but they (still) aren't staying.

 

I came with the first f2p and subbed my second day. I do not yet have a character above 15. I am having a blast doing the starting areas for all 8 classes. Mind you I am a horrid altaholic in every game I played. I will hit the 25+ areas....eventually.

[MandFlurry]

Its not really a problem past Nar Shaddaa. By the time you hit Quesh its back to 20 or less most of the time. The early planets are all the folks trying for free....it is clear many are not making it much past 20.

 

That's exactly what I see to on my new server. With FTP there is a lot more Characters than on the high lvl planets where like the other guy said, there is only 28 ppl sometimes. Of course I don't much trust what the count of how many ppl are on planets either.

[Norke]

It's a good sign that low level areas are packed.

 

It's a bad sign that the level 25+ areas are mostly empty. It tells me they are getting new people, but they (still) aren't staying.

 

Aye, I keep telling myself F2P players haven't leveled up to there yet, but another part of me wonders if the cut in XP makes it's frustratingly hard to get that high level.

 

I love the way low level zones feel though, it's almost like back at launch. It feels like an MMO again.

[MarkoJinn]

Wow...Okay. Okay.... okay. Let me break down why you man-children will never be pleased with anything in an MMO ever.

 

At launch there's queues and full servers. Constant whining.

Few months later, there's a lot less people. The whining for merges begins.

Another few months pass. Total whinefest about low population.

F2P launches. People now whine about full planets; not even server queues, but just having full planets is enough to whine about.

 

The circle is now complete.

 

This precisely. I mean come on planets are too full now?!?! Give me a break...

[Norke]

This precisely. I mean come on planets are too full now?!?! Give me a break...

 

The ignorance with you and the person you quoted intrigues me. You assume that the people complaining about servers being full are the exact same people who were complaining about servers being empty. Why? Where are the facts to back up such a statement?

[harpuax]

The issue isn't really the other people, there is problem with 2 systems in the game.

 

The first is with clickies. They need to spawn per player not per world. Meaning they should be sort of in a different phase for each player. GW2 does this perfectly. If a clickie is clicked on by player A it is st still visible and clickable for player B, yet it is gone for player A.

 

The second is mob tagging. It needs to be removed plain and simple. It was an old band aid solution to an issue that just doesn't need to exist anymore. If you hit the mob you should get credit when it dies, regardless of how much damage you do to it. It would work that way if you were grouped, this just saves the trouble of constantly having to be in a group with whoever happens to be around you. We are all on the same side it should be a give we are going to help one another, not fight against each other to complete quests.

[Quraswren]

After leveling one toon at launch and having packed areas, then leveling another toon when things were dying down and seeing low pop areas to leveling a 3rd toon in merged highly packed areas;

 

I'll take the full areas any day over low pop now.

 

Just so much more fun to be had and so much easier to get groups for heroic content on the planets. I know you don't even have to do them but they are fun and interesting and can give some good leveling gear.

[MandFlurry]

I honestly have mixed feelings about the higher populations. On the one hand, it's awesome to just wander into a heroic area and find half a dozen people already there already doing the quest. You don't have to formally group with them, you just jump in and start taking down champions and elites. That's nice. Having other people around who will jump in if you've bitten off more than you can chew in a fight is nice too and I try to return the favor.

 

On the other hand the chat on the starter planets is just a cesspool. It's awful. It's beyond awful. Every time I've tried to roll a new toon I end up giving up because the chat is ALWAYS a fight about politics and/or religion. When it's not, it's a talk about bacon or explicit talk about how they want to have sex with the various NPC. It is by far the worst I've seen. It's awful.

 

Fortunately, this filters out by the time you get to 20-25. Apparently no one is sticking around that long.

 

You know, that's 1 thing I like to do, is if some1 bit off more than they can chew and see their health getting low then I usually help out ppl as much as I can, and a cpl of ppl have done it for me to on the Jedi Covenant server. and I have the Guild an old guy like me can have to.

[GrandMike]

The issue isn't really the other people, there is problem with 2 systems in the game.

 

The first is with clickies. They need to spawn per player not per world. Meaning they should be sort of in a different phase for each player. GW2 does this perfectly. If a clickie is clicked on by player A it is st still visible and clickable for player B, yet it is gone for player A.

 

The second is mob tagging. It needs to be removed plain and simple. It was an old band aid solution to an issue that just doesn't need to exist anymore. If you hit the mob you should get credit when it dies, regardless of how much damage you do to it. It would work that way if you were grouped, this just saves the trouble of constantly having to be in a group with whoever happens to be around you. We are all on the same side it should be a give we are going to help one another, not fight against each other to complete quests.

 

Exactly and it has been said many times before.

 

Personalized clickies are standard MMO stuff these days.

 

Open tapping/remote looting has been such a success in LOTRO that today it has been applied to whole game after being available only in RoR areas for testing/monitoring purposes.

 

Wonder how long it will take SWTOR to catch up since their quest design (especially dailies) is terrible and completely immersion breaking.

Edited December 17, 2012 by GrandMike

[Grethore]

@OP

Stop! Take a step back and take a DEEP breath.

 

All better? No? Wait, WHAT?!? There's actually people on the same planet as you!?!? EGADS! SOUND THE ALARMS! A travesty is happening!!!

 

Seriously, it's actually nice to have SOMEONE on the same planet as you for once. It's also nice to have people around who I dunno, might need to do the same heroics as you. It's a LOT better than sitting on Taris (pub side" with ZERO, nada, zilch, bubcus of people there and questing for 4 hours straight hoping someone comes there so you can maybe do the heroic+2 missions at least.

 

Even on Voss, I've seen several people running around, from both sides. That's nothing like it was before, when my consular was eeking out those last few levels to 50 there and literally not seeing ANYONE for DAYS of 8+ hour long questing.

 

Be thankful there are people around. Don't complain about it. It's an MMO, not a single player game.

[A_nonymous]

The issue isn't really the other people, there is problem with 2 systems in the game.

 

The first is with clickies. They need to spawn per player not per world. Meaning they should be sort of in a different phase for each player. GW2 does this perfectly. If a clickie is clicked on by player A it is st still visible and clickable for player B, yet it is gone for player A.

 

The second is mob tagging. It needs to be removed plain and simple. It was an old band aid solution to an issue that just doesn't need to exist anymore. If you hit the mob you should get credit when it dies, regardless of how much damage you do to it. It would work that way if you were grouped, this just saves the trouble of constantly having to be in a group with whoever happens to be around you. We are all on the same side it should be a give we are going to help one another, not fight against each other to complete quests.

 

No mob tagging is the way it is in another MMO I play. It is a common complaint all the time though. There are the equivalent of world bosses that take mobs of guys to take down. It's not uncommon to have someone run in take one swing at the guy and then run off to the edge of the group and basically hide. He gets credit for the kill even though he contributed nothing. It's also not unusual to have someone swoop in and lay the last bit of damage on a guy thus getting the xp and credit for the kill without contributing anything at all to the fight. If you do this you also get loot from the bad guy. People constantly complain on there about loot ninjas.

[harpuax]

No mob tagging is the way it is in another MMO I play. It is a common complaint all the time though. There are the equivalent of world bosses that take mobs of guys to take down. It's not uncommon to have someone run in take one swing at the guy and then run off to the edge of the group and basically hide. He gets credit for the kill even though he contributed nothing. It's also not unusual to have someone swoop in and lay the last bit of damage on a guy thus getting the xp and credit for the kill without contributing anything at all to the fight. If you do this you also get loot from the bad guy. People constantly complain on there about loot ninjas.

 

I would agree it wouldn't work for a world boss, but for average quest trash it works great. Fighting against other players on the same side as you to finish a quest is about as anti-MMO as it gets.

[Droidiphile]

There are pros and cons:

- Datacrons - on a crowded world you can usually find a group or follow someone as they search for them. There are more than one that cannot be soloed. Same for end game content - most runs cannot be soloed. And think about how hard finding the HK part at the Dark Temple would be solo.

- Clicky competitions - on a low population world, there is no waiting to click on stuff for the quests. Same is true of havestable stuff - no waiting.

- Heavy population --> lag. The lag has only gotten worse ever since the last patch. And when Harbinger crashed yesterday, I was #467 in the queue with a 30 minute wait time predicted.

- Low population - no Chuck Norris jokes in chat. OMG, I can't be starved of Chuck Norris jokes! Wait, I was going to say, no market to buy or sell crafted goods.

 

Those are just a few simple examples. Overall, I am happier with the higher populations. If the lag would get fixed, I'd really have no substantial complaints.

[Droidiphile]

Aye, I keep telling myself F2P players haven't leveled up to there yet, but another part of me wonders if the cut in XP makes it's frustratingly hard to get that high level.

 

I love the way low level zones feel though, it's almost like back at launch. It feels like an MMO again.

I started a new Agent on the Left Coast RP server. I was talking to some new players and realized they were having fun but were frustrated and needed some generic advice. The way they were going about things, it would take a while to level.

 

So here is my noob advice to help minimize frustration when you are just starting out:

Create a toon, park it in a rest zone, and play second toon with EXP boosters (if you can afford). Then just toggle between toons and always play the one that is rested. You will gain like mad.

 

Your very first toon should NOT do crafting - only harvesting. You can sell everything you harvest for cash while avoiding the expense of recipe costs. I never had any trouble selling all my matz for what I consider to be ridiculous prices - I still do. Then whatever gear you lack from quests and comm dealers, buy off the market.

 

And finally I am on topic: Group for the Heroic zones/quests/Area4s. Run them with anybody/everybody who seeks a group. A large server population helps in this regard. Doing so increases cash, drops, exp, and by God you might even get invited to a helpful guild.

 

Yeah, overall, a large server population works out nicely.

[bahdasz]

When there are 6 instances of a planet and you smile because you finally found the one with the lowest population.... of only 115 people... yes, waaaayyyyy too crowded.

 

Grinding character #5 and this is the worst time I've ever had, so freaking tired of having to wait turns or try to ninja 5 other people just to be able to get required quest mobs. I'm this close to quitting, not going F2P, I mean walking away completely, over this retardation.

 

Something needs to be done, this is ridiculous. Again, great idea BW, close down all the servers and then launch your big idea to bring back all your lost players.

Edited December 17, 2012 by bahdasz