Why not merge into 1 server? (rather than cross server queues or such)

[TX_Angel]

Ok, I've seen the request for cross server queues over and over.

 

Why bother, since we have various instances, why not just merge it all and get rid of the idea of "servers"... there is just "the game", you log in, your toons are there, everyone is together.

 

The "servers" aren't really that anyway, 10,000 people on Friday night aren't all playing on a single server box anyway, there is a whole rack, if not room, full of servers and when you go from place to place, you're being moved from one physical machine to another anyway.

 

So instead of 8 servers with fleet having 2 or 3 instances, we'll have 1 server with fleet having 20 to 25 instances, each running on a separate physical machine.

 

This would merge queues, the GTN, guilds, etc... you'd have far more people to play with at any given moment.

[Anaesha]

Ok, I've seen the request for cross server queues over and over.

 

Why bother, since we have various instances, why not just merge it all and get rid of the idea of "servers"... there is just "the game", you log in, your toons are there, everyone is together.

 

The "servers" aren't really that anyway, 10,000 people on Friday night aren't all playing on a single server box anyway, there is a whole rack, if not room, full of servers and when you go from place to place, you're being moved from one physical machine to another anyway.

 

So instead of 8 servers with fleet having 2 or 3 instances, we'll have 1 server with fleet having 20 to 25 instances, each running on a separate physical machine.

 

This would merge queues, the GTN, guilds, etc... you'd have far more people to play with at any given moment.

 

Becomes some people like to RP so they go to a RP server or they like to PVP so they go to a PVP server.....do I really need to keep going with this?

[Reno_Tarshil]

It will be a mess for those who play on multiple servers, better to just develope cross server tech.

[Tsillah]

And let's not forget the naming issues. You wanna lose half your character names or worse? I don't. Already lost too many last time there were server merges.

[TX_Angel]

Becomes some people like to RP so they go to a RP server or they like to PVP so they go to a PVP server.....do I really need to keep going with this?

 

True... but I'm on BC and frankly, people don't really RP there.

 

But ok, you could have 2 servers perhaps... or... forced PvP flags... turn it on if you want to PvP in open world, turn it off and no one can force you into PvP and you can't attack anyone else either who hasn't manually flagged...

[TX_Angel]

And let's not forget the naming issues. You wanna lose half your character names or worse? I don't. Already lost too many last time there were server merges.

 

Yes, this is an issue, one that should be solved by allowing people to have the same names. Force unique Legacy names instead, so that you can have your favorite name.

[TheBBP]

And let's not forget the naming issues. You wanna lose half your character names or worse? I don't. Already lost too many last time there were server merges.

 

Those were some dark times on these forums. I do not think that any other single issue in this game caused as much rage. Knocking things down to one server and wiping out those names just might anger enough people to actually kill this game.

[TX_Angel]

It will be a mess for those who play on multiple servers, better to just develope cross server tech.

 

Why? Just offer an increase beyond 22 alts per server, so that when merged you don't have to pick your favorite 22. Think of all the CC spent to buy more slots!

 

I know that I'd buy 10 more...

[Heal-To-Full]

So instead of 8 servers with fleet having 2 or 3 instances, we'll have 1 server with fleet having 20 to 25 instances, each running on a separate physical machine.

They did this in ESO and it sucks. It really sucks. I played it and it was pain after pain after to connect with your friends in the same instance, because the instances aren't named, numbered, anything, they try to hide it all from you.

 

And then, of course, there's complete lack of responsibility on anyone's part, because unless you become friends, they'll never meet you again.

It also harms guilds, because they can never become anyone, no one knows which is the "top" guild, which guilds matter and which don't. It's literally like... ESO feels a lot more like a desert than SWTOR does, despite all the balancing technology. A desert filled with nomads, but they are nobody, you'll see them rushing past and never see them again.

 

 

The "servers" aren't really that anyway, 10,000 people on Friday night aren't all playing on a single server box anyway, there is a whole rack, if not room, full of servers and when you go from place to place, you're being moved from one physical machine to another anyway.

Any evidence for that's the case?

 

I suspect that each server might actually be a single machine. HeroEngine isn't all that advanced and running on a cluster is very high-tech.

In 2012 when servers merged, a state of the art server would be either a 4-CPU box of Opteron Interlagos at 16 cores, ~3GHz each, or an 8-CPU box of Intel Westmere-EX at 10 cores at ~2GHz each.

 

Either way you're looking at 64-80 cores that run a single instance of the operating system, and so can run a single instance of the server program. It just might be enough for the amount of population supported.

 

Had SWTOR run an advanced cluster-based engine like EVE, it would've been able to dynamically allocate resources to overloaded servers such that they never become full.

[Reno_Tarshil]

Why? Just offer an increase beyond 22 alts per server, so that when merged you don't have to pick your favorite 22. Think of all the CC spent to buy more slots!

 

I know that I'd buy 10 more...

 

Because I use the same names on my characters on multiple servers.

[TheNahash]

Those were some dark times on these forums. I do not think that any other single issue in this game caused as much rage.

 

They could add a small detail to a chestpiece and some people would react as if someone robbed their house.

 

People rage over every little thing here. There's no perspective of what's important and what's insignificant anymore. Just people raging over things because they can.

 

Nothing new there.

[Gwena]

As others have mentioned, there is the matter of server types. Merge 'em all together, and RP'ers will run into more people that don't even have a slight interest in RP, PvP'ers will have a harder time finding someone to kill on Alderaan because not everyone is flagged, etc, etc. I do not believe such concerns are insignificant.

 

Also, I think I'd have to break out the ol' pitchfork if they did this without revising the naming system.

[Heat-Wave]

Because I use the same names on my characters on multiple servers.

 

I suspect that the percentage of people who play the same alt on different servers with the same name is amazingly low. While it might upset you, there probably aren't enough of you to matter.

 

You make a valid point, but if don't know that EA would care if they decided to go this way.

[TX_Angel]

They could add a small detail to a chestpiece and some people would react as if someone robbed their house.

 

People rage over every little thing here. There's no perspective of what's important and what's insignificant anymore. Just people raging over things because they can.

 

Nothing new there.

 

Amen to this...

[TX_Angel]

They did this in ESO and it sucks. It really sucks. I played it and it was pain after pain after to connect with your friends in the same instance, because the instances aren't named, numbered, anything, they try to hide it all from you.

 

Well, they are numbered in SWTOR, so that doesn't really apply here.

 

Adding more than 150-170 people per instance causes all kinds of issues.

 

As it stands, do you want everyone so completely divided that they can NEVER play together? Or do you want them divided by instances that can be switched as needed?

[ScarletBlaze]

No thank you. I play on a roleplay server and I like it that way. I would prefer not to deal with those individual that would tell me you can't roleplay here, I don't like it so go away to some place else.

[AshlaBoga]

Regarding the names I like the following options:

A) [Character Name] of Prophecy of the Five

 

B)

[Character Name]

Prophecy of the Five

 

I prefer option B because some names are too long as is (for example Oss'addo'reela Grand Champion of the Great Hunt Mitth'raw'nuruodo).

[TheBBP]

They could add a small detail to a chestpiece and some people would react as if someone robbed their house.

 

People rage over every little thing here. There's no perspective of what's important and what's insignificant anymore. Just people raging over things because they can.

 

Nothing new there.

 

I agree, but that's not my point. I was just stating that as far as I remember, no single issue caused more forum rage then when folks started losing their names. Even more so when it happened a second time.

[Sangrar]

I agree, but that's not my point. I was just stating that as far as I remember, no single issue caused more forum rage then when folks started losing their names. Even more so when it happened a second time.

 

yeah I remember that, I heard a lot about that, I was lucky though, even the two character names I thought were most likely to be taken at my destination server (Starforce and Firefighter) were very fortunately not taken. But I know a lot of people who were not lucky. Though I had a backup alt on a different server from all the others who I played on whenever I had to wait through server queues at the very very beginning of the game whose name was Disaster who sadly forever lost that name when he got shunted into Harbinger, at least it was not any of my main characters but still it was a small disappointment.

[RandomXChance]

The server tech is probably not an issue. These days newer server setups on these scales are clusters that then virtualize the individual "servers" as needed. In a game like this it would be the disadvantage some would be at due to server location.

 

Let us look at the idea of the servers being in London like the EVE server is. I am in Los Angeles and 6000 miles away. At the full in vacuum speed of light this is about 40 milliseconds to travel. Light travels at about 70% of vacuum speed in glass. Add in extra router hops and additional congestion and you have roughly double that 40 milliseconds to add to your current latency. In EVE this is not a huge issue because reaction time on hitting buttons is less critical. In a game like this that will put a player in London at a real advantage to one in Los Angeles.

[Heal-To-Full]

As it stands, do you want everyone so completely divided that they can NEVER play together? Or do you want them divided by instances that can be switched as needed?

I want a server that is an actual community. ESO has no community. It doesn't feel like a medieval or fantasy world, it feels like outer space where everything outside your guild is an endless void. Despite constant population being maintained in each instance, it's very empty, all these players around could as well be NPC.

 

Here, I know who's who on my server. I don't know quite every character, but I know or know about everyone who is anyone. Regarding guilds, it's how good each is, what do they do, who is their guild's A-team and who just along for the ride, a lot about who to keep track of in PvP and whom to mez and go about my business. People trust me with millions in mats, I do likewise, we're all pretty much stuck on this boat, reputation has a lasting value.

 

Speaking of boats, carriers have just over 5,000 men aboard, cruise ships, which might be a closer analogy, up to 6,000, but for ships over a couple thousand people complain that they start feeling too crowded, impersonal, lacking in connections. This really is about the threshold for how many people you can put together before they all become to each other just a stream of faces to never be seen again.

 

That doesn't mean current servers are too large: half the players is on the other side, half of those on yours is still leveling their first character. But they're not small either, they can't get much larger without losing cohesion.

Another factor is that there's actually very little separation of servers except by playstyle (PVP, RP) and language.

 

So what do I want?

I think part-time cross-server on top of an otherwise classic server system is the way to go. When the queue, be it group finder or PvP, can be hit quickly, keep it within the server. During off-peak times, if average wait gets too long, activate cross-server. Definitely add a toggle to opt out of cross-server matching. Except in ranked, it should have been cross-server from the start and should be kept such at all times.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Heal-To-Full

[Savej]

I agree, but that's not my point. I was just stating that as far as I remember, no single issue caused more forum rage then when folks started losing their names. Even more so when it happened a second time.

 

Not sure what you're referring to. There were a couple annoyed threads, very predictable considering that the situation hit such a large percentage of the playerbase, but "unparalleled forum rage" is a gross exaggeration. Ilum, smash, sorc nerfs, operative nerfs, Courtney's "heal2full & make them pay" comments, Eric Musco's "no" thread, server merges/transfers way overdue, hood toggles, AC swapping, lag/ability-delay - all of those have inspired epic numbers of threads and/or post counts. Naming conflicts? Pure smallfry.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Savej

[TX_Angel]

I want a server that is an actual community.

 

Here, I know who's who on my server. I don't know quite every character, but I know or know about everyone who is anyone.

 

So you liked it better back when we had 20 servers? (or 24, or whatever it was)

 

Fewer people to play with? Because frankly, I've been on BC since 1.1 and have 17 alts, 13 of them at lvl 55, and I don't see a "community", I see a large collection of casual players and a handful of serious players, with no real way to tell the difference.

 

I suspect nothing will make you happy, but frankly, cross server queues? All that will do is put you into fights with people you don't know, which is what you say you don't want.

 

Maybe I don't get it, but it seems like you're looking for something that doesn't exist. You talk about boats having 5 to 6 thousand people on them. SWTOR has far more people than that playing most evenings. You might have 1,000 on the fleet alone, just between 3 instants on the Pub and 3 on the Imp side (170 times 6).

 

That doesn't count people in WZ, FP, on their ship, on all the various planets... There may be 50,000 people playing...

 

Divided across 8 servers... that is more people than an aircraft carrier, so we're already there...

 

Stick them all into the game together and offer real ways to make a community and I think you might have something.

 

Right now, there are no places to go in the game and actually "do" anything besides kill things. Yes, that is what most people want to do, and perhaps strongholds might help a bit... but the cantinas haven't proven to be useful in this regard and there just doesn't seem to be what you're after.

 

Just my thoughts...

[Jeweledleah]

I want a server that is an actual community. ESO has no community. It doesn't feel like a medieval or fantasy world, it feels like outer space where everything outside your guild is an endless void. Despite constant population being maintained in each instance, it's very empty, all these players around could as well be NPC.

 

Here, I know who's who on my server. I don't know quite every character, but I know or know about everyone who is anyone. Regarding guilds, it's how good each is, what do they do, who is their guild's A-team and who just along for the ride, a lot about who to keep track of in PvP and whom to mez and go about my business. People trust me with millions in mats, I do likewise, we're all pretty much stuck on this boat, reputation has a lasting value.

 

Speaking of boats, carriers have just over 5,000 men aboard, cruise ships, which might be a closer analogy, up to 6,000, but for ships over a couple thousand people complain that they start feeling too crowded, impersonal, lacking in connections. This really is about the threshold for how many people you can put together before they all become to each other just a stream of faces to never be seen again.

 

That doesn't mean current servers are too large: half the players is on the other side, half of those on yours is still leveling their first character. But they're not small either, they can't get much larger without losing cohesion.

Another factor is that there's actually very little separation of servers except by playstyle (PVP, RP) and language.

 

So what do I want?

I think part-time cross-server on top of an otherwise classic server system is the way to go. When the queue, be it group finder or PvP, can be hit quickly, keep it within the server. During off-peak times, if average wait gets too long, activate cross-server. Definitely add a toggle to opt out of cross-server matching. Except in ranked, it should have been cross-server from the start and should be kept such at all times.

 

wholeheartedly agree with that.

 

and to the other reply.. if you don't recognize people or guilds, you might not be particularly active in actual community and its activities. heck I'm only semi active, mostly sticking to my 2 guilds, and i still know whom to pay particular attention to in pvp, which guild tags to avoid when pugging ops, etc.

[Reno_Tarshil]

I suspect that the percentage of people who play the same alt on different servers with the same name is amazingly low. While it might upset you, there probably aren't enough of you to matter.

 

You make a valid point, but if don't know that EA would care if they decided to go this way.

 

It doesn't matter as people who arn't like me would still lose names in the merging process and more un-needed rage on the forums.

 

It's better to develope cross server tech.