Server Pops Too Low - Remove Shards

[Xenirath]

K, im confused. I joined a low pop server due to qqers complaining about ques. Now people want higher population servers?

 

Internet Logic never ceases to amaze me. ***** about ques, then turn around and ***** about empty servers.

[Phoenix_Down]

Yeah its really annoying I switched out of my high pop server before they fixed the queues and now my server has like no people in it, its really annoying to get groups and the chat is basically empty all the time

[ForumRabbit]

Peak time (Australia):

 

1 server on Heavy, that isn't right for a game on release, is it?

 

About 6 on Medium, none full, rest Light.

 

Definitely needs server merges but that would cost them more money than retaining separate servers altogether (explaining why they are spread so thin already).

[Nasq]

By the way, now considering it all... as i said i'm in the most crowded server of all swtor.

 

The only place i saw not instanced was imperial fleet 3 days ago, and there was about 400 people. The closer experience i had to be playing an MMO all those days... in imperial fleet.... however, you know what happened?

 

With an ati5770 series (a medium gamma ati radeon, enough to max settings and go smooth) the game was running to 5 FPS!!!!

 

I think the problem here is that Bioware still has the big problem of the optimization and IS SCARED about it, THIS GAME IS SO BAD OPTIMIZED, the FPS go down so heavily sometimes but if is crowded the place it goes more down!! is ridiculous!!!

 

They are probably trying to avoid the critics doing this crap of sharding fvking the whole MMO experience because the optimization sucks.

 

Another problem here is that doing so MUCH planets divide the population so much. Bioware i'm asking you something why u couldn't do less planets? and some of them much larger? just tell me why?

 

 

A game launched 7 years ago called SWG owns YOU.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Nasq

[Doolish]

/sign

[carnac_fett]

K, im confused. I joined a low pop server due to qqers complaining about ques. Now people want higher population servers?

 

Internet Logic never ceases to amaze me. ***** about ques, then turn around and ***** about empty servers.

 

The thing is, even if you've played a ton of other MMOs, population is measured differently in TOR.

 

"Full" in other MMOs means the world is packed, whereas TOR's "Full" equals other MMO's "Normal".

 

"Very Heavy" = Light.

 

Heavy and below are all brand-new levels of population density below Light.

 

Light in TOR appears to have as much people on as WoW does when the game goes down for maintenance and only Blizzard employees can get in.

 

Removing a lot of the phasing and segregating players into different shards will help, but I don't think it will solve the problem. Server population caps are way too low. More players need to be able to get on each server.

Edited December 26, 2011 by carnac_fett

[Waypoc]

 

Re-read what I was responding to. It was apt.

 

 

Or, answer the question I'm now posing for a 3rd time:

 

Why do people want to see other players in their questing areas?

 

 

1. Friends
   
2. Guild
   
3. Sister Guilds
   
4. Meeting new people
   
5. Camaraderie
   
6. Feeling that the World I'm in is alive
   
7. Teamwork
   
8. The toons I see running around actually have people behind them
   
9. Unpredictable game-play
   
10. Massive Open World PvP Battles
    

 

All of the above is possible at a ridiculously small scale but not without jumping thru some silly hoops.

 

Now my question to you:

 

Why did you buy a game, that by definition means playing with a lot of people, if you only wanted to play with yourself?

Edited December 26, 2011 by Waypoc

[Waypoc]

the sharding is a joke. i'm in the most crowded server of whole swtor (US+EU) called Tomb of Freedon Nad (+2000 people queues in the first days) and i feel like playing a KOTOR instead of a massive multiplayer game, my MMO experience is 0, i'm NOT enjoying leveling up. In a full server there is no people sometimes to even do heroics i mean ***.

 

W T F?

 

If you add the fact that you level to max level cap in 1 week (lv50) you found that you DIDN'T ENJOY THE GAME AT ALL, when i play a MMO i play because i want to play with OTHER people, not alone, i passed through tatooine and alderan whole quests and i only found 1 REBEL in 3 days!!!!! and i can barely see people from my faction in the cities!!! i mean W T F even SWG servers 2 days ago were more crowded than this HAHA. And the worse is that this is happening in the most populated server of swtor, how can that be posible?

 

Think for a while, if this happens in the most full server of swtor, how would be the other medium, standard servers? Hahahaha, is a big joke.

 

I was in Alderan yesterday and I said this is probably a jumping place let me go into Cantina and see all the ppl. lol not a one. And that Cantina is Huge!

[carnac_fett]

 

Why do people want to see other players in their questing areas?

 

 

I wouldn't have purchased the game if I had known it was going to be instanced up almost as much as Guild Wars was.

 

Guild Wars had no monthly fee because nearly all of the game was instanced.

 

I wouldn't have paid $15 a month for Guild Wars.

 

TOR is a fair bit less instanced than Guild Wars, but I still think that the server population caps are far too low and too much of the game is instanced. I think a $10 monthly fee would have made more sense.

[DocVandar]

K, im confused. I joined a low pop server due to qqers complaining about ques. Now people want higher population servers?

 

Internet Logic never ceases to amaze me. ***** about ques, then turn around and ***** about empty servers.

 

The only reason people were encouraged to join low population servers at launch was to avoid being in a 1+ hour queue. This is an MMO -- no one wants to be playing in an empty world, which is what it feels like now, despite there being 1+ million subscribers.

[Nasq]

i'll definately unsub if they do not change that, being paying monthly for an instanced game is a complete robbery.

[Waypoc]

K, im confused. I joined a low pop server due to qqers complaining about ques. Now people want higher population servers?

 

Internet Logic never ceases to amaze me. ***** about ques, then turn around and ***** about empty servers.

 

Don't be confused. Different people = different wants.

[Cameirus]

Looking for other thoughts on this. I thought this would be something that others would want as well.

 

Population does seam low.

 

On my server (very heavy pop):

 

Corusant:42 players

Fleet: 21 players

 

As the main two areas in game, the hubs as it were, thats worrying.

[Waypoc]

By the way, now considering it all... as i said i'm in the most crowded server of all swtor.

 

The only place i saw not instanced was imperial fleet 3 days ago, and there was about 400 people. The closer experience i had to be playing an MMO all those days... in imperial fleet.... however, you know what happened?

 

With an ati5770 series (a medium gamma ati radeon, enough to max settings and go smooth) the game was running to 5 FPS!!!!

 

I think the problem here is that Bioware still has the big problem of the optimization and IS SCARED about it, THIS GAME IS SO BAD OPTIMIZED, the FPS go down so heavily sometimes but if is crowded the place it goes more down!! is ridiculous!!!

 

They are probably trying to avoid the critics doing this crap of sharding fvking the whole MMO experience because the optimization sucks.

 

Another problem here is that doing so MUCH planets divide the population so much. Bioware i'm asking you something why u couldn't do less planets? and some of them much larger? just tell me why?

 

 

A game launched 7 years ago called SWG owns YOU.

 

I have to suspect something similar. I was in for a couple of load tests and it did get pretty bad. But removing player interactions by segmenting them is not the way or shouldn't be.

 

With so much broadband out there as well as cheaper hardware to build better pc's, it amazes me that sharding/instancing needs to be done at all. I understand the need for server caps, but not instance caps or instances at all. If these are virtual servers anyway just put a cap on that and let people play together.

 

Also just on a side note, why are the graphics so bad in this game? It looks cartoony & muddy everywhere. There doesn't seem to be any detail. Is it that the game itself cannot high detail?

 

Could this be part of the reason for the shards/instances?

[Makhbet]

Sharding sucks big time. I'm level 39 on Hoth atm and so far I've only seen 2 Republic players on my server (not counting warzones). And I play on one of the biggest population servers. This is truly ridiculous. I even barely see any Empire players, save for Imperial Fleet. This game really lacks "massive" part. So far it's a big disappointment. I hope the devs will see this and remove this stupid feature.

 

Also, I fail to see how the servers can be full with queues if only Imperial Fleet has players. There are barely any planets with more than 100 players on them (the only ones I frequently see above 100 people are Fleet and Dromund Kaas). All other planets are more or less desolate wastelands.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Makhbet

[Waypoc]

Population does seam low.

 

On my server (very heavy pop):

 

Corusant:42 players

Fleet: 21 players

 

As the main two areas in game, the hubs as it were, thats worrying.

 

Extremely worrying.

 

I had a queue coming into game this morning and if I saw 4-5 people total that was a lot.

[Redlir]

agreed

 

What he said.

[MrTijger]

I stood waiting in line for 15 mins to kill one mob tonight. My idea of fun clearly diverges from the posters here.

[AJediKnight]

I have to suspect something similar. I was in for a couple of load tests and it did get pretty bad. But removing player interactions by segmenting them is not the way or shouldn't be.

 

With so much broadband out there as well as cheaper hardware to build better pc's, it amazes me that sharding/instancing needs to be done at all. I understand the need for server caps, but not instance caps or instances at all. If these are virtual servers anyway just put a cap on that and let people play together.

 

Also just on a side note, why are the graphics so bad in this game? It looks cartoony & muddy everywhere. There doesn't seem to be any detail. Is it that the game itself cannot high detail?

 

Could this be part of the reason for the shards/instances?

 

The game is a major resource hog, and has giant performance issues on all but the most screaming-fast of PCs whenever more that 15-20 playable characters are present in one spot.

[emjace]

I initially thought - okay - new MMO and we would be almost pushing each other out the way to complete quests - but encountering just 40 or so players on multiple planets....perhaps a busier population would definitely not go amiss....

 

 

....perhaps my own fault for rolling on a new server since my original was always full - can we ask for better queue balancing which may be better than additional servers.....

Edited December 26, 2011 by emjace

[Waypoc]

I stood waiting in line for 15 mins to kill one mob tonight. My idea of fun clearly diverges from the posters here.

 

You are clearly the exception. What server? Maybe we can all transfer there.

[AJediKnight]

You are clearly the exception. What server? Maybe we can all transfer there.

 

A couple of the elites that cap off the bonus chains (kill 20 of this, then 40 more, then one elite) have freakishly-long spawn times.

 

It has nothing to do with sharding, though... it's just bad design.

Edited December 26, 2011 by AJediKnight

[Waypoc]

The game is a major resource hog, and has giant performance issues on all but the most screaming-fast of PCs whenever more that 15-20 playable characters are present in one spot.

 

This is beyond a game breaker.

 

As I said in my OP, World PvP cannot happen on any meaningful scale in an environment like this.

[MrTijger]

A couple of the elites that cap off the bonus chains (kill 20 of this, then 40 more, then one elite) have freakishly-long spawn times.

 

It wasnt the spawn time, it was the other players waiting to kill the same mob.

 

Server is Kellian Jarro, btw, my shard had around 200 in Coruscant tonight, EU obviously.

[AJediKnight]

This is beyond a game breaker.

 

As I said in my OP, World PvP cannot happen on any meaningful scale in an environment like this.

 

We had a 100 vs. 100 battle on Tat about 4 days following launch. I have a very, very high-end machine and had a good deal of stutter, but the game became virtually umplayable for nearly all my guildmates present.

 

Interestingly, the moment you wandered away from players, 90% of the performance problems subsided. Like, our battle wasn't bogging down the server, or the entire zone (as something like that would do in other games), but only the immediate area around the battle itself.

 

This leads me to believe that the sharding is more a result of the game being a resource hog (IE, we need to be protected from our own 'outdated' [re: not $5000] systems) rather than Bioware's servers being unable to handle the load.

 

This isn't an excuse for the sharding, but it does point the finger directly at the problem: this beast needed to be streamlined years ago. It chews up far too many system resources given its rather unimpressive appearance even at maxed settings.