Petition: Server Transfers

[Jadescythe]

Actually in support with your position. I wanted BW to move me and my guild for free but as that wasn't going to happen the decsion was left to us on what we wanted to do. We decided we liked the game still and with increased population, the things we enjoyed would be more plentiful. The pain was the paying with CC and then credits to unlock things again.

 

But I have not heard a negative reaction from any one who made the transfer. Several inactive guidlies actually made the transfer and resubbed. Its been a positive move for us - granted we rushed and did this in the final days of 90 cc and those that didn't used referral links to get at least 1 toon transferred.

 

So I guess to sum up- if anyone is waiting on BW to do the change for you with no pain, I think you're in for a disappointed future. Had we not switched, I relaly think we would ahve had several folks just cancel subs and walk away.

 

And now we're in the exact scenario you are depicting. Many of the people who didn't transfer are now going to leave the game. Which is a shame.

[MadCuzBad]

So I guess to sum up- if anyone is waiting on BW to do the change for you with no pain, I think you're in for a disappointed future. Had we not switched, I relaly think we would ahve had several folks just cancel subs and walk away.

 

That's sad. This company should be ashamed of themselves for how they are handling this.

[Jamtas]

That's sad. This company should be ashamed of themselves for how they are handling this.

 

I don't disagree, I *****ed to myself the entire time for having to transfer my entire account over while the 90cc still on. something like that shouldn't have happened. Even little things that don't matter in grand scheme like losing a name I've had since launch was something that ticked me off.

 

Maybe they'll do something to make it up- and eventually i do think there will be either an effort to repopulate or merge down the line- but I wouldn't want to be on the side waiting for that to happen

[DarthOvertone]

How can you help?

Please post in this thread to show that you want cheap/complimentary transfers to be temporarily re-enabled.

 

I think this is a reasonable request. Bring back the 90CC transfers for a limited time, announce it ahead of time, and make it for Subscribers only (so it's a perk of sorts).

 

I see no problem with that.

[Jamtas]

And now we're in the exact scenario you are depicting. Many of the people who didn't transfer are now going to leave the game. Which is a shame.

 

And I think they should have extended that 90 CC time for servers that were decimated if they want to move to high population. Not for all servers mind you, but only in case of moving to ghost town to populated.

 

Every server removal comes at a PR cost though. I think ultimately that is the thing keeping some of these around. There could also be "data" giving a wrong impression. Not looking at how many toons were moved and what is most active but how many unique accounts are on the server still. I left a toon on the server to keep guild and legacy there. Does that give them metrics to show activity on the server that they use to justify it?

[ElZaguero]

How do you think The Shadowlands rates on a server population scale?

 

It doesn't seem crowded to me, but it's sure not empty. My new guild always has people online. It may only be 4 or 5 in the morning hours. but there are always 12-20 online in the evenings, even Monday and Tuesday nights. There are a fair number of people at Fleet, there seem to be a fair number of new players. What do you think?

Edited May 5, 2016 by ElZaguero

[CrazyCT]

Well the "calling someone who doesn't agree with them" part is a stretch. I will argue my point but name calling? I would like some quotes or examples. And if I did I will apologize in advance. I may have once or twice. I am not positive but while my general demeanor is defensive while attacked, name calling isn't the norm for me.

 

I'm not going to trawl through all those pages to find all the times you've called someone fanboi, troll, white knight.....not to mention the times when, rather than discuss the points people make, you just spammed the dictionary definition of denial. They're all there for everyone to see, and you even denying it is pretty weird. Not the first time you've lied to get your point across, though.

 

I don't deny I am aggressive when I have people attacking me. I don't mind a debate, but when someone attacks me I do not curl up and hide. There are a lot of people who try to intimidate people. But I am not easily intimidated and I never back down to a bully. You bully me be prepared. Win or lose I don't back down.

 

The funny thing is, YOU were the one who went on the offensive. The way you have since before the game was even out. Calling people idiots, saying the game is dying, your pathetic cries of "I quit" then asking Customer Service why you can't get back online 30 minutes later - this was 4 years ago, and ever since, you've been on the offensive, desperately hunting for someone to disagree with you so you can do what you've done here, and then have the gall to cry 'foul' and say that you were only defending yourself? You got some pretty big balls.

 

But having said that all I do agree that both server merger supporters and those like yourself who don't want them are both selfish I guess. I when I think of playing a MMO having more people then less is something I want. Just the same that staying on your server your on is something that you want. So I guess selfish works on both.

 

Holy RNGeebus - someone get a camera.

Edited May 5, 2016 by CrazyCT

[Andryah]

They were generous to give us 10 months of 95% discount on server transfers. Now people are so used to it, that anything higher in price results in much ranting and squealing.

 

People had plenty of time to move around, for almost free. That has come to a close, and honestly it's probably a good thing for the game in the long run. Too much server hopping results in chaos in the server communities. Rift exemplifies this negative effect quite well. Free, or almost free character transfers is a dream come true for the exploiters, and social misfits which populate every MMO.

 

As for the handful of previously PvP servers.. yeah.. they got abandoned by the PvP crowd, in mass. Now.. since they are no different in terms of rule set anymore, they may over time repopulate to some degree, especially if the studio gives new players some form of incentive to roll on them. However, if they don't recover, then at some point the studio wil decide to end of life them. Generally when a studio end of lifes a server, they give notice, lock the server for new characters and character transfers-in.. and then give players some period of time to transfer off for free to X, Y, or Z server. If the players don't move, at some point, the studio chooses where to move them and then does so and turns off the server.

 

Until they end of life a server, I don't see them offering free transfers, nor deeply discounted transfers. We saw a couple weeks back that they do in fact have the code on the web site now to create push incentives for players to move for free. I believe that was a leaked draft of how they will handle free transfers when they announce the end of life for a server.

[MadCuzBad]

The funny thing is, YOU were the one who went on the offensive. The way you have since before the game was even out. Calling people idiots, saying the game is dying, your pathetic cries of "I quit" then asking Customer Service why you can't get back online 30 minutes later - this was 4 years ago, and ever since, you've been on the offensive, desperately hunting for someone to disagree with you so you can do what you've done here, and then have the gall to cry 'foul' and say that you were only defending yourself? You got some pretty big balls.

 

I went silent for years after all that. And I was 100% exactly spot on in my posts. I had a lot more than that to say but the moderators deleted about 50% of my threads or more. And the truth be told I was exactly correct on my assessment.

 

This game was a miserable failure at launch. Almost everyone I pre ordered this game with and started guild with quit within 4 months or less. We went from a full guild of active members 24/7 to a dead guild full of members that when you looked at a guild of 500 people, non of them ever logged in again. We went from a 30 minute que time to get in our server to a server merger within months. And then another server merger, and then yet another server merger. I went thru 3 forced server mergers in a short period of time. Sorry to burst your bubble but I was spot on and 100% correct about the failure of this game 4 years ago.

 

Now it brings us to today. Here we site with only 8 servers left of 188 US servers alone. Almost all except for a few of those 8 servers are useless garbage. And now after years of silence on the forums I have re immerged. And Once again I am 100% spot on and correct on saying that this game has reached the end of the rope. When Harbringer que times slow to the point that POT5 was for me 2 years ago, I will quit this game minus them creating a mega server.

 

Whether you like me and my thread or not I have been 100% right on the money. I don't hold back anything and tell it like it is. And by doing so I have not been very popular amongst a certain cult like crowd here. It nothing new to me.

I have felt it before years ago and now I feel it again. But the truth is the truth and I will keep pressing on like me or not.

 

You know there is an old saying. It goes like this: You can judge a man by his friends, but you can also judge a man by his enemies. And please do not take offense to this. But being on most of your bad sides doesn't bother me even a tiny bit. As far as I am concerned, I wear it like a badge of honor.

[Aeneas_Falco]

How do you think The Shadowlands rates on a server population scale?

 

It doesn't seem crowded to me, but it's sure not empty. My new guild always has people online. It may only be 4 or 5 in the morning hours. but there are always 12-20 online in the evenings, even Monday and Tuesday nights. There are a fair number of people at Fleet, there seem to be a fair number of new players. What do you think?

 

Supposedly it is the most populated North American server not named Harbinger.

[mattthemascot]

coming from the bastion its dead there all the time,

[SebastianII]

I just spent the last hour on bastion waiting for a lowbie pvp que pop in the middle of double exp and it didn't happen. This is not okay. Please consider server merger. Thank you.

[MadCuzBad]

I just spent the last hour on bastion waiting for a lowbie pvp que pop in the middle of double exp and it didn't happen. This is not okay. Please consider server merger. Thank you.

 

If they don't create a mega server soon, this will be what every server will be like. They need to do something soon.

[jimmorrisson]

Since there are PVP instances now - there should be only two server types: PVE and RP. Given the PVP instances and the 4.3 names with spaces update - it appears we are moving in that direction.

 

Ideally I would like to see eastcoast servers merged with east and westcoast with west.

Edited May 6, 2016 by jimmorrisson

[BenduKundalini]

/signed

[Rafiknoll]

You know, mostly when discussing the server merge, people are thinking of the problems that are essentially a result of a transfer, such as losing your name, guild, stronghold and achievements. These problems are the excuse most people use when they want to justify BioWare not merging the server, and might even really be the reasoning of BioWare themselves.

 

Well, all of those things are wrong! they are all a result of a mistaken analogy between a server merge, and a server transfer (and yes, even if 100% of the source server would choose to transfer to a destination server, it wouldn't be the same as merging). Lets give it a look and see why:

 

- Achievements and legacy unlocks: Since in a merge, ALL characters of a player are moved to another server, it is only logical that everything each of them achieved or unlocked will move with it. Meaning, that all the achievements and unlocks from the source server will be added to the existing achievements and unlocks in the destination server, if there were any. For example: if I had all ops achievements on TOFN and all warzone achievements on TRE, upon a merge I would have BOTH! and that's only fair, since I really worked for both, and all characters involved are present in where I am now. You could even merge the achievements themselves with each over (say, if I infected 30 players or one server, and 40 on another, the progress of the achievement would be 70), but I am sure that even if that is too complicated to do, the kind community will agree to just remain with the higher progress (40). The only reason the system I presented doesn't exist for 1 character transfer, is that it wouldn't be fair that using 10 characters (for example) to unlock something, and then moving 1 character alone to another server, will grant that character an early advantage against other players in the destination server. That would suck for people who intend to transfer their whole legacy, but well, the game doesn't know that's the intent and can't act accordingly. But a merge is not transferXcharacters, so the game know in advance that it's all of them moving, enabling all achievements to come with you.

(By the way, upon writing this that gave me another great idea: sell "server transfer"s on the cartel market. They let you to one-time choose a source and destination server, and move all characters from the source to the destination. Maybe THAT would justify a cost of 1000cc, though it cannot solve ALL problems that a merge can avoid)

 

- Character limit: A merge means that what used to be 2 servers is now 1. Meaning, we have twice the hardware support for the merged server (if it was 2 servers merged, thrice if it was 3...). So there shouldn't be any problem to double the character limit per server.

 

- Guild: The fear of every guild is a transfer. Why? because they need to re-invite everyone again, repurchase the bank, and worse of all - the flagship. Must a merge result in these problems? No!! Not at all! This is again just the result of unjustified analogy to having the whole guild transfer using character transfers. When each individual of a guild transfers, he actually leaves the guild and moves a server, if the whole guild does that the original guild actually disappears, and only "by coincidence" the characters who previously were on the dead guild create themselves a new guild, with the same leader(?) and must of course buy the banks and flagship and all decorations, due to that being a new guild. BUT, when servers transfer, the guild can be moved as a whole, without ever disbanding or losing a single member. Therefore, there is no need for the guild to lose any of it's unlocks, not even the flagship WITH the decorations left untouched inside. Heck, this is even simpler than dealing with the individual who moved with the merge and have their SH conflict (will be dealt with in a moment). Since there was no over guild for the same characters on the destination (merged) server before. The only possible problem might be having guild names clash. that can easily be fixed by adding "@TOFN" (for example) to the end of each guild name, at least until the guildmaster logs in for the 1st time and is prompted to change the name (call it a free guild rename if you wish). See how simple?

 

- Personal name, legacy name, and strongholds: As for the 1st two, simply prompt them to change when needed (or, in legacy name, make them choose between the names of existing legacies in the different servers). As for strongholds, that's a bit more complicated, but completely NOT impossible: 1st, we merge all unlocks (SH, rooms and decorations). For example: if I on TOFN I had Coruscant unlocked except the balcony, and Tatooine fully unlocked, and in TRE I had Coruscant fully unlocked except for the garage, and Yavin fully unlocked, after the merge I will have Coruscant fully unlocked, Tatooine fully unlocked and Yavin fully unlocked. (The kind players will forgive BioWare for the rooms the paid for twice [in both servers]? even if not, its not impossible to refund that)

Now, all that remain is the last, already quite minor, problem: what of the decorations inside the SH? the simplest answer is: WHO THE HACK CARES? JUST PLACE THEM AGAIN! (because so far you already lose neither rooms nor decorations), but I will do even better than that: Prompt the player upon 1st login after the merge (it is doable, we already saw prompts appearing after merges, they still appear sometimes...): "Due to the server merge, you have conflicting strongholds on the planet <planet>. That is due to you having them unlocked on both <server1> and <server2>. Which of the decoration setup do you want to keep in the merged server? NOTE: rooms and decorations will remain unlocked disregarding your choice, according to a combination of the unlocks of both servers, the only effect will be the current setup of placed decoration in your stronghold. WARNING: this choice is permanent, the setup of the other server will not be saved, and you will not be able to change your mind (but can decorate manually again). [Choices: <server1> // <server2> ...// <empty>]. And I hereby solved the ultimate SH problem. (BioWare might need to recalculate prestige due to having a decoration for the grant 100 prestige per server rather than only once, but that algorithm is simple and will need to be done only once: <per decoration: prestige = 100 + 2*(quantity -1)> see? done it for you...

 

Now, I am sure it is some work to make it happen, but this all that is left is technical stuff and they are just... technical. I am sure the developers are more than capable of executing an algorithm after it is suggested to them. If someone sees any other problem I missed please quote me (partially please, or each will take another page in the forum) and say so. Though I cannot guarantee a fast response at all since my vacation is just over. If this post will be ignored here I will copy it and make a new thread about it. Hope the devs read it!

[CrazyCT]

You know, mostly when discussing the server merge,....../snip

 

These are some good, valid points, but you made quite a lot of assumptions and completely missed quite a few points.

 

First off, the part where a lot of people are happy on the servers they are on. I understand some people aren't, and that's fine, but they can choose to move. They can transfer all their characters, or they can start new characters on the other servers and move 1 character across to take the legacy, achievements, unlocks, decorations etc with them. If there is a server merge, people like me won't have a choice.

 

Secondly, your assumptions that Bioware will spend time working out a way to move strongholds/guildships over is pretty big. As for adding in coding that will allow you to choose which stronghold you want to keep? I'd rather they spent time fixing the bugs that exist, than creating a few more, and being forced to deal with every individual who "accidentally" clicked on the wrong stronghold, and actually wanted the other stronghold activated. So, my assumption is that they won't. And then why should I be forced to reactivate and redecorate my strongholds and guildships because some other people just want to play on a busier server? Strongholds and guildships are a big part of the Star Wars experience, as well as being a convenience, and are very personal. Added with this is the fact that getting the Stronghold Achievements will be nigh on impossible in a single server.

 

Third, is fleet chat. Even when on my guildship I get access to the fleet chat which is normally a good way to see some trade bargains, what OPs are currently running, and some general chat. Having everyone on the same server would render fleet chat useless, since it would be filled with Guild Recruitment spams, gold sellers (there's a limit to the number of people you can ignore), and every single new person combined asking "What's the best tree for a Marauder?" (I'm all for helping out some new starts, but this "What's the best crew skills?" thing that a lot of them do is annoying). And I shudder to think what will happen to the GTN.

 

You mentioned an increased character limit because there will be twice the hardware, but this would be another big assumption. If they are reducing the number of servers, why would they keep all the hardware for running so many servers? The main reason Bioware would merge servers would be to save money, so why would they keep paying for a service they no longer need?

 

These are up alongside other points that have been brought up before about server stability (anyone from Harbinger remember the rollbacks?), lag from different regions (guns don't kill people, lag does), group finder still taking the same length of time for DPS (yeah, you're getting more tanks and healers on the server, but you're also getting a lot more DPS), and Sorc's still being the go-to class in PvP.

 

And I'm fine with your 'Server Transfer' token, but I'm pretty sure it would cost a LOT more than 1000cc.

Edited May 6, 2016 by CrazyCT

[Thanatus]

First off, the part where a lot of people are happy on the servers they are on. I understand some people aren't, and that's fine, but they can choose to move. They can transfer all their characters, or they can start new characters on the other servers and move 1 character across to take the legacy, achievements, unlocks, decorations etc with them. If there is a server merge, people like me won't have a choice.

 

Sorry but this is simply not true. If you are a regular raider and have 4-6 alts with full 224 gear, starting from scratch on a new server is just not an option

[xkcurtisx]

Sorry but this is simply not true. If you are a regular raider and have 4-6 alts with full 224 gear, starting from scratch on a new server is just not an option

 

if only you had a means to transport your gear idk like something that could be shared with legacy

[CrazyCT]

if only you had a means to transport your gear idk like something that could be shared with legacy

 

Stop picking apart their arguments so easily

[xkcurtisx]

Stop picking apart their arguments so easily

 

But its fun!

[CrazyCT]

Sorry but this is simply not true. If you are a regular raider and have 4-6 alts with full 224 gear, starting from scratch on a new server is just not an option

 

It IS a choice - you just choose that your gear is more important than playing on a server you want. (And you don't really have to choose - stick it in some legacy gear and bring it all over on 1 char.)

[Rafiknoll]

 

First off, the part where a lot of people are happy on the servers they are on. I understand some people aren't, and that's fine, but they can choose to move. They can transfer all their characters, or they can start new characters on the other servers and move 1 character across to take the legacy, achievements, unlocks, decorations etc with them. If there is a server merge, people like me won't have a choice.

 

May I ask what is the upside of being nearly solo in a MMO? No offense but I really don't understand what is the difference, if you don't care about PVP or group content then you don't miss the population so much, but what is the loss of having them around? is it about people farming your mobs in non-phased solo content? I understand it can be annoying, but that alone is no reason to avoid server merge. Do tell me if there is another reason I might have missed, except for fleet chat which will be addressed later here.

 

Secondly, your assumptions that Bioware will spend time working out a way to move strongholds/guildships over is pretty big. As for adding in coding that will allow you to choose which stronghold you want to keep? I'd rather they spent time fixing the bugs that exist, than creating a few more, and being forced to deal with every individual who "accidentally" clicked on the wrong stronghold, and actually wanted the other stronghold activated. So, my assumption is that they won't. And then why should I be forced to reactivate and redecorate my strongholds and guildships because some other people just want to play on a busier server? Strongholds and guildships are a big part of the Star Wars experience, as well as being a convenience, and are very personal. Added with this is the fact that getting the Stronghold Achievements will be nigh on impossible in a single server.

 

The question about choosing a SH was just an addition in case they have spare time, as I said, long as you get to keep your unlocked rooms and decorations, I believe people can suffer a 1 time reset, considering the fact that they just need to spend a not so long time to be in the SH and redecorate, no need to farm credits to re-unlock or reactivate the SH (as you mentioned) and not to retake the decorations. As for the guildship, it shouldn't even lose its decorations, since there is no anther copy of the guildship in both servers. BioWare doesn't need to "work a way" to move the SH or guildship, it is simple as that: each room probably has a Boolean indicator: unlocked = true/false. All they need to do when they merge is to make sure that the condition to keep the unlock is OR instead of AND. Translation for those with no experience programing, they should say that condition: if the balcony on coruscant is unlocked in either on TRE or TOFN (or both) ==> balcony unlocked = true. simple enough, and I am sure game developers are up for it.

 

Third, is fleet chat. Even when on my guildship I get access to the fleet chat which is normally a good way to see some trade bargains, what OPs are currently running, and some general chat. Having everyone on the same server would render fleet chat useless, since it would be filled with Guild Recruitment spams, gold sellers (there's a limit to the number of people you can ignore), and every single new person combined asking "What's the best tree for a Marauder?" (I'm all for helping out some new starts, but this "What's the best crew skills?" thing that a lot of them do is annoying). And I shudder to think what will happen to the GTN.

 

The number of stupid questions and spam will indeed increase, but the number of trade, ops and other things you might want to see will increase by the same factor. The ratio will not change, it will still be as easy to find the things you want to find. The only difference will be chat frequency, meaning that if now you can wait 5 minutes after someone said something and still scroll back just a little and find him if you decide you are interested, now he will be faster overwritten by people who are probably not less interesting than him. The number and phase at which advertisers get what they are looking for will also increase, saving them for having to LF tank for 20+ minutes and such. Meaning they will shut up faster.

 

You mentioned an increased character limit because there will be twice the hardware, but this would be another big assumption. If they are reducing the number of servers, why would they keep all the hardware for running so many servers? The main reason Bioware would merge servers would be to save money, so why would they keep paying for a service they no longer need?

 

These are up alongside other points that have been brought up before about server stability (anyone from Harbinger remember the rollbacks?), lag from different regions (guns don't kill people, lag does), group finder still taking the same length of time for DPS (yeah, you're getting more tanks and healers on the server, but you're also getting a lot more DPS), and Sorc's still being the go-to class in PvP.

 

The second paragraph answers the 1st one. Hardware isn't (at least shouldn't) be based on server, but on population. Think how laggy can a fleet be with 500 people on it be, compared to a fleet with 50 people. the difference is a result of having the same hardware deal with the fleet no matter that is the need and efficiency. Even forget about merging for a second: I heard about people complaining about laggy ops in TRE due to having too many instances. TOFN is not having this trouble mostly due to being quite empty (maybe when EV is focused, or when a new chapter is released are the only times you can notice somewhat slowness). If when realizing that TRE is in trouble, the hardware would look for extra memory and processor space which is wasted in TOFN (so they have 80ms instead of 98ms, do they notice?), TRE would have less trouble. Now I know this might be impossible for TRE to use the resources of TOFN, since I don't know where are the servers held, and how do they operate and all that, but merging the servers into one server would make it much easier, or at least doable, to make unused resources on one area compensate for an overloaded area.

 

As for DPS group finder, classes overpowered and underpowered, more imps than reps and companions not opening their mouth when talking: I agree they are all problems, but I am just trying to offer a solution to the depopulation problem mate, not solve the whole game and make it perfect (wish I could)

[CrazyCT]

I agree they are all problems, but I am just trying to offer a solution to the depopulation problem mate, not solve the whole game and make it perfect (wish I could)

 

That's all any of us want - but people want to play the game their way, and other people want another way. What merging servers does is take away some of the choices we make about this game. The option is there to play on a more popular server if you want. Taking away my choice to play on the server I love isn't making the game better, it's just removing my choice, all to cater to someone else's refusal to take steps and use tools that are already in place to fix their own issues. I won't have any tools to play the game my way if they have their way.

Edited May 6, 2016 by CrazyCT

[Rafiknoll]

That's all any of us want - but people want to play the game their way, and other people want another way. What merging servers does is take away some of the choices we make about this game. The option is there to play on a more popular server if you want. Taking away my choice to play on the server I love isn't making the game better, it's just removing my choice to cater to someone else's refusal to take steps and use tools that are already in place to fix their own issues. I won't have any tools to play the game my way if they have their way.

 

What, exactly, could you love in your server that would be removed if they merge? After a merge your server will remain with everything it had in there. The difference will be having more people.

 

If you speak of role playing, I agree. Don't merge role playing server with none RP too much trouble

Edited May 6, 2016 by Rafiknoll