golfwang Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 On a somewhat different note, I feel like many areas of the game are lifeless due to a lack of NPCs. On nar shadaa they did a great job of making it feel like a bustling populated city...except that there's no one there. I understand why there wouldnt be a ton of civilians in the gang owned area, but in the main area there should be CROWDS of NPCs walking around and doing NPC things. Instead theres like 5 just hanging out. I think it would have felt a lot less lifeless if they just added a ton of star wars aliens and even humans just walking around...carrying shopping bags, yelling at eachother, about to engage in fist fights, beggars asking for credits, I dont even care, just ANYTHING. Same with the imperial fleet. It should be crowded with stormtroopers (or whatever the equivalent would be in this time of star wars) marching around, or NPCs who are lurking the GTN for stock prices etc. That way when I go to Tatooine and its empty (as it should be) i feel like I'm actually on a different world. /rant I couldn't help but notice this too. Planets are designed well but feel lifeless, especially since players are split between instances. Nar Shadaa is gorgeous but there's so much EMPTY SPACE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunwindIon Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 (edited) I'm not saying that at all. I'm completely for sharding to PREVENT that. But even -with- sharding, as a whole, planets seem entirely dead.. When you go to a planet, theres a number by the name. That number is EVERYONE on the planet, regardless of shard. On average there are only 30-40 people on any given planet. With sharding, that seems like hardly any. I'm on Voss right now and there are 3 people on the entire planet, one of them being me, and my server is the second most popular EU PvP server with 1,500 person queues my only conclusions: the number in the top left represents players only in your shard, not on the entire server on that planet. or there really are only 2 people on it and the 1,500 queues are completely fake and don't represent actual player numbers. Edited December 25, 2011 by SunwindIon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acheros Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 I'm on Voss right now and there are 3 people on the entire planet, one of them being me, and my server is the second most popular EU PvP server with 1,500 person queues my only conclusions: the number in the top left represents players only in your shard, not on the entire server on that planet. or there really are only 2 people on it and the 1,500 queues are completely fake and don't represent actual player numbers. to be fair, though, isn't voss kind of a high level planet? Just saying..I do try to be fair on both sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeedaix Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 SO your saying in 2012 with all the advancements in server technology and games like Eve that have 40 and 50 thousand people playing on 1 server concurrently that the absolute MOST that bioware's servers can handle is around 150 people a shard? Is that REALLY what your trying to defend? Sorry sir, but your argument is terrible. Try again next time. EvE one server, gazillion shards, you gate out from shard to another.....SWTOR, It has nothing to do with server limitations it was to help people not to have so much lag....all i'm saying. Calm down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momentum Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 Honestly, i kind of like the lack of NPCs because, i have a rather low end computer so it reduces lag a TON. Now, i know, i know, greedy me only thinking about myself..But one thing all MMOs need is accessablity. I don't blame you for being selfish in that regard, what Im suggesting would make it unplayable for certain people. But does that really have to be an issue? Why can't they just have an option in the graphics section to lower or raise "graphical ambience" or something. Then we both get what we want. I really don't think it would be that complicated and hard to implement. Then again I'm not a game designer. But if you can already change graphics completely...why not be able to change that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeedaix Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 I'm on Voss right now and there are 3 people on the entire planet, one of them being me, and my server is the second most popular EU PvP server with 1,500 person queues my only conclusions: the number in the top left represents players only in your shard, not on the entire server on that planet. or there really are only 2 people on it and the 1,500 queues are completely fake and don't represent actual player numbers. Your first conclusion is correct Sir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeelol Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 Your first conclusion is correct Sir No it's not. It's already been discussed before. The number is the total of all shards combined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwater Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 Any area beside the main cities ALWAYS feels empty on EVERY MMO Think of playing WoW and questing in The Blasted Lands.... Yeah, it's the exact same Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeelol Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 Any area beside the main cities ALWAYS feels empty on EVERY MMO Think of playing WoW and questing in The Blasted Lands.... Yeah, it's the exact same You're missing the part where it doesn't feel empty only because of players. It's the huge planets with extremely spread out groups of mobs and npcs. On Alderaan for ex when going towards elysium or in other parts as well you can have up to 2-3 minutes of riding on your speeder bike without meeting ANY FORM OF LIFE. Just desolate landscape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acheros Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 No it's not. It's already been discussed before. The number is the total of all shards combined. and general is also cross shards. How do i know this? I've found people to do heroic missions in general who've had to switch shards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeelol Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 and general is also cross shards. How do i know this? I've found people to do heroic missions in general who've had to switch shards. Yep that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwater Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 You're missing the part where it doesn't feel empty only because of players. It's the huge planets with extremely spread out groups of mobs and npcs. What?.... WHAT?!?! I can't step 5 feet without running into something on most planets. Yeah, Alderaan is a big planet with large rolling planes. You want EVERY planet to be densely packed with mobs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KahlessUK Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 I agree completely, most places are pretty empty, whichever way you cut it. I've never seen desolation like this in any MMO and it kind of ruins the feel of the game for me. Simply doubling up on the numbers for each shard would help without over populating... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acheros Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 I agree completely, most places are pretty empty, whichever way you cut it. I've never seen desolation like this in any MMO and it kind of ruins the feel of the game for me. Simply doubling up on the numbers for each shard would help without over populating... I'd say keep the shards a 50/50 split, double the amount of people on each server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wajeeha Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 (edited) No it's not. It's already been discussed before. The number is the total of all shards combined. That doesn't make sense. The other night on Nar Shadaa, it said there were 33 players. When I opened /who, it showed 41 results for players on Nar Shadaa with 8 being on instance 2. That leads me to believe the planet number shows only your current instance. ETA: Tonight, it showed 19 people but when I checked /who again, there were 52 results. Edited December 25, 2011 by wajeeha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pratorean Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 To the OP there number you see only refers to the shard you are in. I know this for a fact as I could see in my guild window I had guild mates with me on Tatooine but they did not show on the planet if I used the search tool by clicking on the number. The reason bioware did this was so we are not fighting for updates. IMO this was smart. COnsidering this was the best launch of an MMO I have ever seen. Its easy to get a group if you need one just use General Chat etc. There are so many people in fact I have never had to wait on a group. Granted I play in a decent size guild. The sales numbers of the game its self are staggering. If you divide those number amongst the servers equally the number is massive. Its pointless math though because the players them self are not divided equally. This game is far from dead. As long as BW can keep content up this could be the biggest MMO we have seen in a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palenen Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 (edited) why do you want the entire area spammed with players all over the place killing your quest mobs. making collection quest and quest in general a pain the butt to do? i've always hated that about WOW. you go into an expansion and the new areas are just flooded with people and the simplest task take minutes or hours to complete. perhaps maybe that's what mmorpg's are supposed to be and not layered heavily instanced? Down with player segregation! Edited December 26, 2011 by Palenen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthOpulentia Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 When you go to a planet, theres a number by the name. That number is EVERYONE on the planet, regardless of shard. On average there are only 30-40 people on any given planet. Mmmm.... I don't think that is right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acheros Posted December 26, 2011 Author Share Posted December 26, 2011 Mmmm.... I don't think that is right. It is for me, and my server. and before anyone asks, yes. i have even /who'd, and the number on the /who comes up as the same as the number by the planet name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagoar Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 agreed even on high pop planets i barely see people they need to remove the instancing and increase the server cap by a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThReborn Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 sharding will eventually kill the game, no one likes playing a mmo alone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necrolepsy Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 I have a real full server, saw 211 people on Coruscant today when I went to hand in Act 2 of my trooper story line o.O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papazooki Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 I've been grouping and seeing a TON of people, no idea what you're on about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verrgi Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 This is the biggest letdown in this game imo. Been questing in Nar Saada or whatever the place is called, and I've seen like 2 players in those 3-4 hours. Done some flashpoints and heroic missions and those have hands down been the best time with this game. It's much more fun to do stuff with other ppl, but now it's just so damn lonely I sometimes wonder if I'm actually playing an mmo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mezamashii Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 No it's not. It's already been discussed before. The number is the total of all shards combined. No, it's not. The number shown is the number in your shard. This is trivial to verify; simply switch shards and watch it change drastically. This works paricularly well late in the eve if you are in a shard that has depopulated. You might see 6, then switch to shard 1 and see 100. Now general chat IS cross shard, but the number shown isn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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