It's long overdue.. it's time to merge servers.

[Genada]

The simple solution is to make transfers free. No one should have to pay to leave a dead server, not even a reduced price. It's not the players fault that SWTOR has failed to bring in new players or keep them.

 

As far as guilds and flagships go, they just need to be able to allow them to transfer like they do with Strongholds. It's a pain to have to reset them up but it's not that huge of a pain to do it.

 

They have know about this for a long time. They will not address it because they would rather pretend all is well.

 

ALL IS NOT WELL. SWTOR is not doing well, it fails to keep players, it fails to bring in new players. It's time for someone in upper management to figure this out and for major changes to take place.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Genada

[Andryah]

Eve Online is on one huge server. It averages 40k players on at one time, and rarely is buggy. Except for the large fleet battles, hundreds v hundreds, where the game realy l a g s.

 

Except it's not one huge server, it's a sleight of hand. In essence, it is more like a cross-server methodology. It's actually a large cluster of servers where each solar system is instanced in it's own hardware set.

 

The reason this works for EVE is because of the nature of the galaxy allows them to easily partition along solar systems (jumps between systems are actually switching instances). Plus they don't have to deal with encounter instancing and group finders, etc., etc. The game is a complete free for all.

 

That said... SWTOR certainly could have been approached in a similar manner, but it was not... and hence cannot be approached that way now without a complete redesign.

[Andryah]

The simple solution is to make transfers free.

 

For the hand full of dead servers... yeah.. that would probably be a good move. Last year, we briefly saw a transfer page where the rates were set to 0cc.... but I'm not sure if they had the ability to parse that by to/from server selections.

 

It would however be a bad move in general as it simply enables random scrambling of server communities as people hop anywhere, anytime, for any reason, and back again.

 

Given the inability of the studio to handle guild moves... my guess is they continue with the 90cc transfers indefinitely (as Eric stated) and eventually they will shutter Jung Ma, Bastion, and PoT5 and evict the characters via a free transfer window followed by forced moves.

 

The 90cc transfer rate is actually a fairly balanced approach as it makes the cost trivial for most players who don't just piss their free CCs away on cartel packs (even for players wanting to move an entire legacy) and by not making it free and unrestricted..... it does have a dampening effect on people just moving every day on a whim or to game some aspect of play (like server hopping for GTN cherry picking, or server hopping to cherry pick ranked PvP, etc.). And yes... they could do lockouts on transfers instead.... but that is extra coding and people already complain that the studio needs resources on other things.

 

No one should have to pay to leave a dead server, not even a reduced price. It's not the players fault that SWTOR has failed to bring in new players or keep them.

 

I don't disagree, but let's be real here....... players DID largely abandon Jung Ma, Bastion, and PoT5 of their own free will via 90cc transfers. Their reasons and motives vary of course, but in each case, the player made the choice, and the studio simply enabled the freedom with super low cost transfers. When you give players choices.. they can and will do things that ultimately are against their best interests and the overall interests of all players.

 

Note: there have been no studio initiated merges or forced transfers in years, not since they put the server transfer mechanics into the game and let players choose.

 

Players can of course blame the studio as you are doing (and most players these days do blame the studio for everything and take no personal responsibility for their own decisions)... but at the end of the day.... it's a wasted argument. Players who can move around freely and inexpensively... CAN and WILL... AND HAVE.

 

And I'm sorry, but the "studio did not attract and keep players" meme is misplaced, as players come and go in MMOs all the time now days, including this one. No MMO is successful in this regard, but there are varying degrees toward success for different MMOs... but in reality most of them suffer surge and ebb effects around expacs... and this includes WoW, FFXIV, and other popular MMOs.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Andryah

[TUXs]

>inb4 the same forum antagonist come in here and claim alternative facts

Excuse #1 "It's winter, kids are back in school...wait until spring"

Excuse #2 "They're all playing the in-game event"

Excuse #3 "They're all in their strongholds"

Excuse #4 "They're all watching the Superbowl"

Excuse #5 "They're all making new alts"

Excuse #6 "They're all playing the new chapters"

 

It's a year past the time to merge.

[Avinler]

The largest servers are the buggiest servers. I doubt they can make mega servers work.

 

Worse, megaservers will kill their cartel market sales. Everything will be dirt cheap on the GTN for in-game credits. The biggest servers like Harbinger are already kind of like that. They'd have to re-think their business model, so they absolutely can't do it.

 

I wholeheartedly disagree on the economic impact of server merges. It would be a resounding positive to have a less fragmented in-game economy. There are only a few servers with functional, healthy economies in NA now which is good for no one. The Harbinger has the most rational and stable GTN pricing of any server, it represents the goal not the problem.

[Andryah]

The Harbinger has the most rational and stable GTN pricing of any server, it represents the goal not the problem.

 

^^ THIS is not true.

 

As someone who regularly plays the GTN on Harbinger, Ebon Hawk, and JC... I can say for a fact that sellers on Harbinger are among the most price gouging and predatory in all the servers for a wide range of items for sale. So NO.. this server does not have the most rational and stable GTN pricing.

 

It did not used to be this way, but after more then a year of low cost transfers... the behavior patterns on the GTN have changed notably. Sure you can still find some bargains.... but overall the stability of prices is all over the map on Harbinger these days for anything that is popular with players. It is not uncommon to see price moves of as much as 3:1 on items over a period of a few days... and unless you know what the average fair market price is for something.. it's chaos for the shopper because of the peaks and valleys in pricing. And for rare gold CM items... the price swings are much worse.

 

It used to be that Harbinger was the best place to shop for crafted items (by far), but even this is no longer generally true. Some Companion gifts are still better shopped on Harbinger, but that too is getting more elusive.

 

Harbinger is still a profitable server for savvy GTN players as along with the instability of pricing and supply comes the free fall dumping of bronze and silver items from cartel packs.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Andryah

[MaximumOwnage]

A consolidation of population is over due. I'm not sure if it should be free transfers or merges. There are way to many low population servers to support this game, so we need something to happen.

My Aussie server got shut down because it was deemed low population and it had more population than the whole west coast has now.

I like Trixxie's ideas. I think that is a fair way with compromises for both communities. We should all try and support what is best for the game. Not what is best for us individually.

Someone once said "the needs of the many out way the needs of the few or the one". You can't fault that logic . Especially if you want the game to stay alive.

 

MaximumOwnage approves this message!

 

Thank you sir, very well said!

[Darevsool]

I'd be happy with cross server queues.

[MaximumOwnage]

I'd be happy with cross server queues.

 

That would be a permanent solution, I agree. But it is my understanding that technology can not be implemented with the code and engine these knuckleheads used to build this game on. Whoever made this mistake should never be allowed to be involved in any job that is linked to an MMO game. What a horrible mistake they made by not having it. I honestly believe it has been the demise of SWTOR and probably will be what ends up shutting this game down at some point. Horrible mistake. A definatly game breaker.

[Khaleg]

That would be a permanent solution, I agree. But it is my understanding that technology can not be implemented with the code and engine these knuckleheads used to build this game on. Whoever made this mistake should never be allowed to be involved in any job that is linked to an MMO game. What a horrible mistake they made by not having it. I honestly believe it has been the demise of SWTOR and probably will be what ends up shutting this game down at some point. Horrible mistake. A definatly game breaker.

 

I couldn't agree more.

The ignorance, stupidity and incompetence to release a game of that kind on a modified beta engine with no support and updates, AND not even holding the know how of the guys who modified it inside the company is absolutely nuts.

Not having x server queues for minimum a year now will be the last nail in the coffin for this game imho, not the gc system which isn't all too bad after a few tweaks and those still coming.

 

The other reason why I will never play a game from Bioware again in the future is their incompetent, sometimes impudent (treating customers like idiots/little kids for instance) customer "support".

In addition the total absence of a bug tracking/fixing team.

I still like this game more or less but I've learned to despise this company wholeheartedly.... I can't stand their ignorance, incompetence and inaction. They don't have the competence to run an MMO, not even remotely, that's for sure.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Khaleg

[Manjaca]

Hi,

 

very interesting Data from the US East/West Servers.

 

Here is the Data from the European/German Server T3-M4. Only Fleet Population:

 

Imperial Fleet: 154 Players in Instance 1, 9 Players in Instance 2.

Republic Fleet: 169 Players in Instance 1, 4 Players in Instance 2

 

This are numbers from German Prime Time Monday evening. Usually T3-M4 have more Imperial Players exept Today

 

At Weekend we have Usually more Players in Instance 2.

I hope someone can post the Numbers from the French PVE Server.

 

Sry for my bad English

[MaximumOwnage]

Eve Online is on one huge server. It averages 40k players on at one time, and rarely is buggy. Except for the large fleet battles, hundreds v hundreds, where the game realy l a g s.

 

Been playing EVE for my first for 2 weeks now. Its not even remotely laggy. Works flawlessly so far.

[Totemdancer]

Hi,

 

very interesting Data from the US East/West Servers.

 

Here is the Data from the European/German Server T3-M4. Only Fleet Population:

 

Imperial Fleet: 154 Players in Instance 1, 9 Players in Instance 2.

Republic Fleet: 169 Players in Instance 1, 4 Players in Instance 2

 

This are numbers from German Prime Time Monday evening. Usually T3-M4 have more Imperial Players exept Today

 

At Weekend we have Usually more Players in Instance 2.

I hope someone can post the Numbers from the French PVE Server.

 

Sry for my bad English

 

LoL, you have more reps than imps. You don't see that very often

[HuaRya]

I couldn't agree more.

The ignorance, stupidity and incompetence to release a game of that kind on a modified beta engine with no support and updates, AND not even holding the know how of the guys who modified it inside the company is absolutely nuts.

Not having x server queues for minimum a year now will be the last nail in the coffin for this game imho, not the gc system which isn't all too bad after a few tweaks and those still coming.

 

This is probably accurate speculation but we as players (some since beta) deserve an honest answer. Is this something they cannot do at this point due to technical limitations or are they waiting in anticipation of some update that will bring back former subscribers like wildebeest running across the Serengeti. So they are holding back.

 

Most of Galactic Command relies on grouping with others, the more people in queue the more frequent the pops. Even Harbinger has a pretty lengthy pop wait time now for some modes. Rallying people in your guild or on fleet is an additional leg of work and a time sink, thus the invention of a group finder.

 

Now excuse me while I go listen to Depeche Mode's enjoy the silence and wait for Uprisings to pop.