Warning on high population servers

[TJuberg]

Bioware should have anticipated that people coming in later waves of the early access would be joining their friends instead of setting up shop on servers with high populations.

 

The problem was further compounded with BW allowing servers to stay full with up to 3 hours queue without bringing up additional servers, forcing people to create characters on already full servers.

 

Then you have the problem players created for themselves.

For example Bloodworthy. BW preassigned a population for this server based on guild sizes etc. Now what happened was that a very large portion of the population on a server was unhappy with their preassigned server, and decided to move to Bloodworthy. Some of the major Scandinavian guilds in this case shifted a few thousand people from Chuundar to Bloodworthy. These have kept recruiting since EA started and increased in size. I'm sure the same story has been repeated on other servers. This BW could do little about tbh.

 

That said, aside from not having a queue grace rejoin (who on earth let that one slip? ), SWTOR is one of the best MMORPG launches in history, especially when you take the scale of things into account. WoW was a complete nightmare at launch, with servers filling up faster than Blizzard could put new ones up. Aion was queue hell which makes SWTOR look like it's picture perfect. Anarchy Online was hardly even playable even when the servers did stay up for longer than a few minutes. The list goes on.

 

Bioware could have done more early on, but it's very easy for people to pass judgement having the virtue of hindsight

 

I really would hate to have underpopulated servers in the long run with non exsistant communities and forced server mergers down the road. Seen it before and it's not really pretty nor fun for those involved.

[Cryptor]

Thnx for the update & let me just sat OMG anyone reading the posts on this forum will just run away from the game.

[Clash]

Thanks for the update Stephen!

 

Finally, we are also aware of the issues some have experienced where they have been disconnected during a queue due to internet issues, and had to restart their queue once more. This is a high priority for our server team and we'll be deploying a fix as soon as possible.

 

One question I do have regarding the above quote...

 

I've also had a similar issue occur for me, and I'm sure others have come across the same problem:

 

When in a flashpoint, I have battled through with my party and almost completed it, shortly before my internet decides to drop and I get disconnected from the server. Sometimes I have been put in as #1 in queue, and this is fine as it has inserted me straight back into the flashpoint, and my party and I are able to continue. However, at other times I find myself being put right to the back of a 500+ long queue.

 

I don't have a problem with queuing in general, as I completely understand that it is to be expected. It's just that when you're in the middle of a flashpoint and you can't re-connect for an hour+ after an internet failure, its a real ball-ache considering all the effort you've put into playing up to however far in the flashpoint, and your group cannot continue.

 

Would there be any way to allow queue-jumps for people participating in a flashpoint or operation at the time of their disconnect?

Edited December 20, 2011 by Clash

[Noremacv]

I can't see BW recovering from this shambles.

1st impressions count with the paying customer, you fork out £39.99 - £129.99 and you expect no matter how much you pay, to play, when you want, how you want, on the server that your characters are all ready on.

 

I have not, will not & I am never going to pay for a game that makes me wait even 30 secs to log on.

 

Maybe I have been lucky with the mmos I have played in the past to never of been screwed over my waiting times.

 

BW put me and my guild on a server that was full after day 1 of early access - unacceptable.

 

BW have not made enough servers available - Unaccecptable.

 

BW were not prepared for the early access - Unacceptable.

 

BW were not prepared for the general release - Unacceptable

 

The game in its current state with regards to the player base being fused to either like it or lump when its the people at BW that have completely messed up the release of SWTOR - UNACCEPTABLE.

 

To have the sorry state of the servers on a holiday period, where alot of ppl will be getting this as a gift, its a disgrace.

 

I've waited years for this game but its taken a matter of days for myself to consider not even bothering playing & I am 1 of the saps that forked out £129.99 for it.

 

It will take something massive for BW to recover repair & win back the players on this.

Talk about impatient. I've waited for this game since day 1 when it was announced. It's here finally, and I frankly see no issue with it. To expect that there wouldn't be any queues at launch was a failed assumption on your part.

Go rethink your argument, do some research on facts (including the DevTracker), and come back to us when you have something valid.

[oredith]

I fail to see the logic BW is using, when they assume people will create new toons on Harbinger and SwiftSure.

 

it is very very widely known, that these servers have horrendous queues. why would anyone knowingly select those servers unless that's where their guild/friends are?

 

me, personally, I just got screwed (along with a lot of other people). My guild was deployed BY bioware, to The Harbinger. we didn't manually move.

 

day one of EGA was great, we were all having fun. Day 2, we start seeing "heavy" to "very heavy", and by day 3, we had full server notices.

 

the problem is that the lumped all the very early access people into too few servers, and then the subsequent waves were all ANCHORED to those first servers, because that's where their guilds were deployed to.

[Paradosi]

If you're having trouble with queues, come join the lower population servers.

 

Infinity Gate could use more people right now.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Paradosi

[The-Jedi]

That is right, there is nothing more annoying and frustrating than not being able to play on the server your guild is on. So I recommend placing all first toon of placed guilds their count in the population pool so there will be no queue when we decide to loggin.

 

Obviously if we generate another toon on a different server that, that would not be the case and would be risking a queue if we endever on it or a second toon on the server our guild resides on.

 

I and the guild had to jump through hoops to play on a server with my enemies and friends are on so why are we queued?

 

 

 

Really what is so hard about the idea of placing the first generated toon of placed guilds in the population pool count, easy enough so please execute this idea. ASAP.

 

Thank you,

 

The-Jedi

[Rauth]

Looks like you forgot to include Iron Citadel in your list of realms recommended to not make a character on... it is so disappointed every time I log on and wait in a line of 560 people to play the game.

[subliminal]

/wavehand Oh, you'll keep playing, yes you will.....

[oredith]

Looks like you forgot to include Iron Citadel in your list of realms recommended to not make a character on... it is so disappointed every time I log on and wait in a line of 560 people to play the game.

anyone on Swiftsure or Harbinger (where the SWG ahazi group got deployed to by bioware, depending on PvP / PvE preferences of the guilds) would be happy to see 3 digit queues.

[Muckbeast]

I am going to try and keep this positive.

 

As many of you know, we're experiencing high load and corresponding queues on some servers. This is to be expected during launch, as a high number of people want to play the game, and for long stretches at a time.

 

A game of SWTOR's budget should have resolved this issue. The idea of login queues was never good, and never acceptable. It is an embarrassing black eye on the entire industry.

 

It is tantamount to trying to make a phone call and getting a busy signal because too many people are making phone calls. Nobody would accept that. When people purchase a product or service, they reasonably expect to be able to use it.

 

Getting auto-assigned to a server and then having to wait an hour to login at 10am on a Tuesday is beyond ridiculous.

 

If this issue was truly "to be expected" then more steps should have been taken in advance to resolve it.

 

Maybe less money on voice acting and more money on far more important things like this?

 

Character transfer is a common request for these servers. The ability to transfer your characters is being worked on, but there is no ETA on when it will be available.

 

If server queues were "to be expected", then that would mean this should already have been coded an in place. Right?

 

 

Finally, we are also aware of the issues some have experienced where they have been disconnected during a queue due to internet issues, and had to restart their queue once more. This is a high priority for our server team and we'll be deploying a fix as soon as possible.

 

If server queues were "to be expected", then that would mean this should already have been coded an in place. Right?

 

These are not new issues. This is the most expensive computer game ever made in the history of the industry.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Muckbeast

[CapaxInfiniti]

I can't see BW recovering from this shambles.

1st impressions count with the paying customer, you fork out £39.99 - £129.99 and you expect no matter how much you pay, to play, when you want, how you want, on the server that your characters are all ready on.

 

I have not, will not & I am never going to pay for a game that makes me wait even 30 secs to log on.

 

Maybe I have been lucky with the mmos I have played in the past to never of been screwed over my waiting times.

 

BW put me and my guild on a server that was full after day 1 of early access - unacceptable.

 

BW have not made enough servers available - Unaccecptable.

 

BW were not prepared for the early access - Unacceptable.

 

BW were not prepared for the general release - Unacceptable

 

The game in its current state with regards to the player base being fused to either like it or lump when its the people at BW that have completely messed up the release of SWTOR - UNACCEPTABLE.

 

To have the sorry state of the servers on a holiday period, where alot of ppl will be getting this as a gift, its a disgrace.

 

I've waited years for this game but its taken a matter of days for myself to consider not even bothering playing & I am 1 of the saps that forked out £129.99 for it.

 

It will take something massive for BW to recover repair & win back the players on this.

 

Every time I see a post like this, I smile a little. One less person in front of me in the queue...

[iorlas]

Talk about impatient. I've waited for this game since day 1 when it was announced. It's here finally, and I frankly see no issue with it. To expect that there wouldn't be any queues at launch was a failed assumption on your part.

Go rethink your argument, do some research on facts (including the DevTracker), and come back to us when you have something valid.

 

Talk about having your head stuck where the sun don't shine... get a clue.

[The-Jedi]

/wavehand Oh, you'll keep playing, yes you will.....

 

O.o , you think your a jedi /waving your hand like that? Nothing works on me, only money.

 

If I can't play with my friends it means I can't play. If I can't play then why pay?

[ChiefKamach]

Looks like you forgot to include Iron Citadel in your list of realms recommended to not make a character on... it is so disappointed every time I log on and wait in a line of 560 people to play the game.

 

Indeed Iron Citadel is awful. Really don't wanna reroll as I've been playing on this server since the 15th but I'm about ready to cut my losses.

[Knivez]

Pretty hard to disagree with this.

 

Bioware, you simply didnt think things through when performing the Guild deployment, didnt load balance and now it's making you look bad. I think you show serious audacity by saying we should go to other servers when it was your scheme that put us on these problematical severs.

 

It's one thing that you didnt plan a crucial element of a MMO launch out logically, but it's a severe slap in the face to even consider asking us to essentially take a hit in your error by making us sacrifice the hours we have already invested into our characters.

 

You need to be better at PR. Immediately.

 

How many hours do you have on your character? How many hours per day does it take to get through the queue? Add it up, in a week you'll have made up the time by being able to play the game instead of waiting in queues and complaining on forums.

 

I personally don't care if servers are low pop for the entire life of the game, some people prefer that. I played on a low pop server for 4 years on wow and never had an issue with it, not every server needs to be over-populated. I do think that every server now has a sustainable player-base and that server caps should be maxed so that people don't have to restart. It's just not something someone wants to do a week after they start playing.

[elidion]

Yeah it sort of sucks it happened this way...with the staggered invites to EGA, a lot of us didn't know what servers would be high population or not. Also with all the servers going down yesterday, people that were not in EGA but got their game yesterday had no idea what servers were full since they all were pretty light right at midnight.

 

Anyway, most of my guild is under level 20 anyway, due to multi hour queues and disconnects back to multi hour queues...I have spent more time waiting than actually playing I think. I talked to some of my other guildies and rationalized with them...with the 4 hours we spend waiting for our queue, we could be rerolling on a new server, playing and having fun. Leveling is fast when you skip all the story dialog (until you catch up to where you were), I think in that 4 hours I could easily get into the teens.

[AureliusMarcus]

Just a thought, knowing many folks are not going to like it, but here goes. Would it be possible for the queue system to take into calculation the ratio of Republic : Empire current players on the server? Perhaps it could help curb the large imbalance we are seeing.

[Clash]

I can't see BW recovering from this shambles.

1st impressions count with the paying customer, you fork out £39.99 - £129.99 and you expect no matter how much you pay, to play, when you want, how you want, on the server that your characters are all ready on.

 

I have not, will not & I am never going to pay for a game that makes me wait even 30 secs to log on.

 

Maybe I have been lucky with the mmos I have played in the past to never of been screwed over my waiting times.

 

BW put me and my guild on a server that was full after day 1 of early access - unacceptable.

 

BW have not made enough servers available - Unaccecptable.

 

BW were not prepared for the early access - Unacceptable.

 

BW were not prepared for the general release - Unacceptable

 

The game in its current state with regards to the player base being fused to either like it or lump when its the people at BW that have completely messed up the release of SWTOR - UNACCEPTABLE.

 

To have the sorry state of the servers on a holiday period, where alot of ppl will be getting this as a gift, its a disgrace.

 

I've waited years for this game but its taken a matter of days for myself to consider not even bothering playing & I am 1 of the saps that forked out £129.99 for it.

 

It will take something massive for BW to recover repair & win back the players on this.

 

See you at lau......oh wait.

 

Seriously my friend, it seems from this post that you have never been part of an MMO launch before. These are common problems for the launch any MMO. And TOR is dealing has one the biggest launches on its hands.

 

Just accept it. Instead of whining endlessly about how it is 'unacceptable'. BioWare are doing suprisingly well considering the number of players participating in this launch.

[daweee]

So Bioware, you think Ahto City is ok?

 

>:/

[Nessyb]

Thanks for the update - yesterday though I only Q'd for 5 mins.. fine by me and i'm on Harbringer.

 

As for Oceanic servers? The game hasn't launched here yet!!! Seriously people get it right. Oceanic servers will launch with the official launch here I expect.

 

BW i do not envy your job, everyone wants everything now but the people who are QQ are the minority, most people have been here before and have to say this is one of the smoothest launch ever.

 

DC's? its not BW's issue if you have a crappy internet connection, haven't crashed once, yes it must be frustrating but seriously let them fix what they can and either upgrade your PC or your IP provider. oh and please stop the QQ in and out of game. it gets SOOOOOO boring.

[MasterDarvon]

A character transfer would be really great.

[oredith]

Thanks for the update - yesterday though I only Q'd for 5 mins.. fine by me and i'm on Harbringer.

 

you must have logged in sometime between 8:52, and 9:05 then, because after that, the queue was the normal 1 hour+ time.

[Cryptor]

A free GUILD TRANSFER from these servers on the list would be greatly appreciated. You make an entire guild happy & clear off a whole bunch of slots all at the same time.

[iorlas]

Thanks for the update - yesterday though I only Q'd for 5 mins.. fine by me and i'm on Harbringer.

 

As for Oceanic servers? The game hasn't launched here yet!!! Seriously people get it right. Oceanic servers will launch with the official launch here I expect.

 

BW i do not envy your job, everyone wants everything now but the people who are QQ are the minority, most people have been here before and have to say this is one of the smoothest launch ever.

 

DC's? its not BW's issue if you have a crappy internet connection, haven't crashed once, yes it must be frustrating but seriously let them fix what they can and either upgrade your PC or your IP provider. oh and please stop the QQ in and out of game. it gets SOOOOOO boring.

 

White Knighting at it's best.