Goals for Addressing Server Concerns

[IanArgent]

You can still queue for the content via the old methods. You just can't get GC command crates unless you're a sub. That was my takeaway.

[Deewe]

so it sounded like at max level, pvp, FPs, operations all require a sub now. So those pops are now going to exclude all the ftp and preferred players. Bet those pops are gonna go much faster eliminating that. OPs and wz passes worthless now.

 

So at one point FTP model helped save the game and now it looks like they are abandoning that model

Might be wrong but guess everyone can play any content though it you want to participate in the Galactic Command (obviously for the rewards) you then you need to be subbed.

 

So expect to see nice loot out of it

[Tsetso]

^^ Musco's secret alt forum account

 

At least they told us their intentions and reasoning at long last.

 

Haha. No seriously, Musco is a lot more reasonable.

[Pietrastor]

^^ Musco's secret alt forum account

 

At least they told us their intentions and reasoning at long last.

Except that their reasoning is nonsense, epsecially as cheap transfers made the server population way more uneven than it was during KOTFE launch. Dead servers will remain dead even with influx of returning players for KOTET

[Ylliarus]

Hey folks,

 

At our fan event in Las Vegas, one of the things we stated is that we are working to address the concerns of things like queue times and uneven server populations and that we would provide an update before the end of the year. As you might expect we're not ready to tell you exactly what we are working on yet, but we did want to go into what our goals are for next year.

 

• To address issues of queue times across all types of content, both PvP and PvE.
  
• To rethink how we approach “server separation.”
  
• Remain sensitive to things like character identity.
  
• The continued ability to define your chosen server playstyle, PvE, PvP, RP, RP-PvP.
  
• We also would love to use this opportunity to enhance/create social systems. It’s a big ole’ galaxy and we want it to feel that way.
  

In the coming months we will be releasing more details. We appreciate your patience as we work towards these goals.

 

-eric

 

It may seem a bit unimportant for some of the players, but I wanted to take this opportunity to advocate for my fellow roleplayers in SWTOR.

 

A good story needs a good setting, with a good sense of what is going on. Star Wars is the best setting ever, especially SWTOR. However, while KotFE was an amazing storyline, roleplayers for example creating stories in a Sith-centered guild found it difficult to form a sense of what was going on with the Sith Empire for example after the Eternal Empire hit. Of course I understand not all can be revealed always because it would spoil a story, however, things like "did Korriban recover from the Zakuul assault" or "what is the new hierarchy after Acina" are vital components for creating an immersive environment for rp'ers in SWTOR. An example is that Sith guilds still have influxes of Sith acolyte characters claiming to have trained on Korriban after Zakuul hit. It left rp'ers to wonder whether this was viable or not and a lot of consensus had to be reached through speculation.

 

Basically what I am asking is if the Roleplayer community of SWTOR, which is a sizeable portion of the game's playerbase, could be thrown a bone sometime, for example in the form of more lore-bits that provide clarity about the setting but don't spoil the story ^_^

[Jamtas]

Might be wrong but guess everyone can play any content though it you want to participate in the Galactic Command (obviously for the rewards) you then you need to be subbed.

 

So expect to see nice loot out of it

 

but no gear/crystals/commendations will drop from these anymore so why would they play if they can't get anything out of it? (assuming that is even an option to play)

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

For justice.

[Gomla]

Remember years ago when we asked for cross server queues?

 

Would have solved all the problems and complaints.

 

But, hey, what do we know.

[CrazyCT]

Remember years ago when we asked for cross server queues?

 

Would have solved all the problems and complaints.

 

But, hey, what do we know.

 

{Yeah, all those people that are still here wouldn't be around if they had given us cross server queues}

[TX_Angel]

{Yeah, all those people that are still here wouldn't be around if they had given us cross server queues}

 

There are a lot of people who are NOT here because of this...

 

The servers needed to be merged back in March...

[TUXs]

Cross Server play only helps a healthy game...not a dying one. It's a bandaid, not a fix, for why people are quitting. The lack of group development is WHY people are quitting...fix that and the server populations would have fixed themselves...but 2-years without any new group content is too long to recover from imo.

[kodrac]

nice necro

[Gomla]

{Yeah, all those people that are still here wouldn't be around if they had given us cross server queues}

 

Why?

 

Would fast queue times scare them off?

 

The horror they must feel at almost instant queue pops. I feel for them, I really do.

 

Bless their fragile little hearts.

[robertthebard]

Why?

 

Would fast queue times scare them off?

 

The horror they must feel at almost instant queue pops. I feel for them, I really do.

 

Bless their fragile little hearts.

 

So what you're saying is that the game has been dead for at least 4 years, if you play a DPS class trying to get into a PvE queue? Because I'd be we could necro more than a few threads from back then with people complaining about slow queue times on DPS toons.

 

Just last week, I hit the queue on my Operative for the DvL event. I forgot to uncheck the Heal box, and the pop took five minutes, and I didn't get the FP I was hoping for. The next day, on the same toon, I hit the queue, figuring I'd try my luck again, remembered to uncheck Heal, and after 45 minutes, I gave up and did something else. Hey, guess what: 3 years ago, I hit the queue on a DPS with my guild leader, also on a DPS. 45 minutes later, we gave up, swapped toons, he to his healer, me to a tank, and the queue was almost instant. We had to get a different DPS, because apparently one of them either fell asleep, or was watching Netflix, and missed the queue pop.

[TX_Angel]

Cross Server play only helps a healthy game...not a dying one. It's a bandaid, not a fix, for why people are quitting. The lack of group development is WHY people are quitting...fix that and the server populations would have fixed themselves...but 2-years without any new group content is too long to recover from imo.

 

Wise words, as usual...

 

If you go back to the start of this year, you'll find posts from me saying that the point of no return was fast approaching, I think it has now been passed... Even if they committed in January to new group content, it would be too late.

 

Too many people have left for other games and won't return at this point. I fully expect to be one of them once I play the solo content in 5.0. I have zero interest in grinding the same 2+ year old content again for another set of gear that is just numbers that doesn't do anything new my current gear does at lvl 65.

[Gomla]

So what you're saying is that the game has been dead for at least 4 years, if you play a DPS class trying to get into a PvE queue? Because I'd be we could necro more than a few threads from back then with people complaining about slow queue times on DPS toons.

 

Just last week, I hit the queue on my Operative for the DvL event. I forgot to uncheck the Heal box, and the pop took five minutes, and I didn't get the FP I was hoping for. The next day, on the same toon, I hit the queue, figuring I'd try my luck again, remembered to uncheck Heal, and after 45 minutes, I gave up and did something else. Hey, guess what: 3 years ago, I hit the queue on a DPS with my guild leader, also on a DPS. 45 minutes later, we gave up, swapped toons, he to his healer, me to a tank, and the queue was almost instant. We had to get a different DPS, because apparently one of them either fell asleep, or was watching Netflix, and missed the queue pop.

 

Queue times for single servers are always going to be long.

 

We asked for cross server queues from the starts because we knew what was coming if they didn't give us them but as always, Bioware knew better.

 

Shockingly, as time went on and the servers emptied, queue times got terrible. As I said, a lot of people already called this. The only people that didn't see it coming were Bioware with their extreme lack of MMO experience that obviously never played an MMO because this happens every single time with MMO player drop off.

 

The thing is, some companies learn and fix that problem. From mega servers to cross server queues, anything to shorten the queue times and make things better for the player base.

 

Yet again, they only people that don't see this are Bioware.

 

Now, i'm not a dev and have no right telling them how to do their job but I have been around the industry for over 30 years. Sometimes you just come across a company that sticks it's head in the sand, ignores the problems until they get too big and then can't find a way to fix it.

 

I'm not saying the community knows best, i've seen a lot of ideas over the years and most of them are awful. Cross server queues or full server merges would help the issue though.

 

SWTOR is never going to grow beyond what it is now. It's at that point where this is the player base it's going to get, maybe a few returns when the expansion hits but nowhere near what it was at launch.

 

Cross server queues would have helped back then, now some servers are so empty we just don't need them.

 

It's time to finish merging them.

[robertthebard]

Queue times for single servers are always going to be long.

 

We asked for cross server queues from the starts because we knew what was coming if they didn't give us them but as always, Bioware knew better.

 

So you knew that Server A would have 2000 tanks sitting in the queue, waiting for DPS and heals, and that Server B would have 2000 healers, and server C would have 2000 dps? Because in order for xserver queues to do anything real for the queue times, that would have to be the scenario.

 

Shockingly, as time went on and the servers emptied, queue times got terrible. As I said, a lot of people already called this. The only people that didn't see it coming were Bioware with their extreme lack of MMO experience that obviously never played an MMO because this happens every single time with MMO player drop off.

 

The thing is, some companies learn and fix that problem. From mega servers to cross server queues, anything to shorten the queue times and make things better for the player base.

 

Yet again, they only people that don't see this are Bioware.

 

Now, i'm not a dev and have no right telling them how to do their job but I have been around the industry for over 30 years. Sometimes you just come across a company that sticks it's head in the sand, ignores the problems until they get too big and then can't find a way to fix it.

 

I'm not saying the community knows best, i've seen a lot of ideas over the years and most of them are awful. Cross server queues or full server merges would help the issue though.

 

SWTOR is never going to grow beyond what it is now. It's at that point where this is the player base it's going to get, maybe a few returns when the expansion hits but nowhere near what it was at launch.

 

Cross server queues would have helped back then, now some servers are so empty we just don't need them.

 

It's time to finish merging them.

 

Irony? If "Queue times for a single server are always going to be long" is true, then merging to a single server won't do anything for queue times, because it's a single server. These problems were occurring on healthy servers, years ago, you even say you saw it coming. I submit that it's going to be about the same with a single server as it was back then: Tanks and Healers avoiding PuGs like the plague, due to the general nature of the community:

 

DPS A: Hey, I'm only two rooms ahead, why isn't the healer healing me????

 

DPS B: Hey, I'm only two rooms ahead, why isn't the tank pulling mobs off of me???

 

You say you've been around 30 years, you should know that these scenarios happen a lot. I mean, I've got a lot of time in MMOs and online games in general, and I've seen it enough to know it's an industry wide thing, hence

 

[ekwalizer]

So you knew that Server A would have 2000 tanks sitting in the queue, waiting for DPS and heals, and that Server B would have 2000 healers, and server C would have 2000 dps? Because in order for xserver queues to do anything real for the queue times, that would have to be the scenario.

 

That is exactly correct. Cross-server as a fix to the queue problem is ill conceived. The trinity breakdown on every server is probably about the same percentage wise. So this cannot help DPS get faster pops. All you are doing is adding exponentially more DPS to the queue.

 

I stopped tanking GF FPs within a month of the GF being a thing. I simply will not do it. I don't know any regular tank that will. There is no incentive to put up with no-nothing DPSers who either think their Mara/Sent is supposed to initiate every encounter or Sorc/Sages who think that it is perfectly fine to KB a group of mobs that the Merc/Mando was in the process of AOEing down.

[Tsetso]

That is exactly correct. Cross-server as a fix to the queue problem is ill conceived. The trinity breakdown on every server is probably about the same percentage wise. So this cannot help DPS get faster pops. All you are doing is adding exponentially more DPS to the queue.

 

I stopped tanking GF FPs within a month of the GF being a thing. I simply will not do it. I don't know any regular tank that will. There is no incentive to put up with no-nothing DPSers who either think their Mara/Sent is supposed to initiate every encounter or Sorc/Sages who think that it is perfectly fine to KB a group of mobs that the Merc/Mando was in the process of AOEing down.

 

I actually tanked half of the HMFPs and healed the other half for the DvL. Surprisingly i never got a bad group, but then i did it at the start of the event.

[IanArgent]

I actually tanked half of the HMFPs and healed the other half for the DvL. Surprisingly i never got a bad group, but then i did it at the start of the event.

 

You're a better man than I, then.

 

While I do GF the TFPs for fun, as a tank even, I did my TFPs for DvL outside of GF because I was doing them for more than fun.

[Tsetso]

You're a better man than I, then.

 

While I do GF the TFPs for fun, as a tank even, I did my TFPs for DvL outside of GF because I was doing them for more than fun.

 

TBH i did it just because queue popped faster so i did it in a weekend instead of 2 weeks.

[robertthebard]

I actually tanked half of the HMFPs and healed the other half for the DvL. Surprisingly i never got a bad group, but then i did it at the start of the event.

 

I was accidentally a healer on one... I forgot to turn Healer off on my Operative. I managed to pull it off, w/out getting cussed at publicly anyway, although I imagine that the PT that was tanking did cuss me a couple of times because I was focused on what I intended to do, DPS, and he got pretty low a couple of times...