Bad Days Ahead..........Immediate Responce Required

[TUXs]

Over 2800 views in less than a day. Can we please have a developer respond to this issue one way or another?

 

This is an important issue to a lot of players. Can you at least respond and acknowledge something? I don't think this is an unreasonable request.

To be fair, I bet 1200+ of those were from Ratajack...so it's probably not as big of an issue as it appears.

 

(I KID!!! )

[Ratajack]

Your analysis of what a server merge would do to an account, sorry, a legacy is ... faulty, but the situation isn't as simple as some would like to think. What I'm about to describe is an *ideal*, not a prediction of what would happen in SWTOR if they merge servers.

 

OK, so let's take the example of merging servers X and Y. And let's do it by producing server Z from the debris. (Allods Online did this when they merged all the Euro and NA language-specific servers into a Euro cross-language server and an NA English/English server. The two new servers both had names that were not the names of any of the older servers. And when they merged the Euro and NA servers into a single non-Russian(1) server, it had yet another new name.)

 

Each legacy on Z would be an exact, total copy of the corresponding legacy on X or Y. No changes in legacy storage, stronghold unlockedness and activation, etc. Character name collisions would be resolved in some specific sort of way (either most-recent-login or oldest-character-creation-date or first-login-afterwards, probably - all of these have disadvantages, although the first and last are less problematic than the second).

 

Legacy name collisions aren't a thing, since legacy names don't have to be unique per server even now.

 

Guild *contents* (ship, stronghold, placed decorations, bank contents, member list, etc.) are just transferred from X or Y to Z. When Allods did this, colliding guild names acquired a suffix that indicated the server of origin. So the two different Flying Sheep(2) guilds would become Flying Sheep (X) and Flying Sheep (Y).

 

As far as I can see, the only real issue is character count. So right now, Johnny has 40 characters on X and 30 on Y. Does that mean he has 70 on Z? Do they up the limit per server? Do they simply force him to choose 18 that will be inactive?

 

But as I said, that's an ideal.

 

And the programming issue thing arises because a lot of things have been added to the game since the last server merges, and their server-merge program / scripting may well not have been kept up-to-date with those additions.

 

(1) The developers are a Russian outfit that's now published by my.com outside Russia, and mail.ru inside. I think they are actually part of mail.ru themselves.

 

(2) A real guild name, thanks. Many of my Pub side characters on Mantle of the Force belong to it.

 

This may be an "ideal" situation, but it is far from reality.

 

None of the server merges were simply "copy and paste". In every server merge, guilds had to be reformed on the new server (and pray that your guild name had not already been taken), then the GM had to go through customer support to have the guild bank re-authorized. Getting the guild bank re-authorized could take weeks, or longer, by itself. Anything in the guild banks was lost and had to be replaced. Customer support was unable to simply "restore" the contents of the guild banks.

 

That was also long before the implementation of guild ships, guild strongholds, legacy storage, etc.

 

Now, in addition to the headaches that guilds suffered in the previous merges, add guild ships, guild strongholds, legacy storage, etc. to the list of headaches that players will have to suffer.

[HuaRya]

Over 2800 views in less than a day. Can we please have a developer respond to this issue one way or another?

 

This is an important issue to a lot of players. Can you at least respond and acknowledge something? I don't think this is an unreasonable request.

 

Combine that with the many other server population threads like the recent 'combine shadowlands with jc' and some kind of reply is long overdue.

 

1) Nope we can't do it

course of action- move remaining toons to harbinger

2) Yes we plan on doing it in 2017

course of action - sit tight

3) Stay nebulous and unresponsive

course of action - let sub run out, check in on the guild as a f2p every other month

Edited February 17, 2017 by HuaRya
spelling

[Ratajack]

Combine that with the many other server population threads like the recent 'combine shadowlands with jc' and some kind of reply is long overdue.

 

1) Nope we can't do it

course of action- move remaining toons to harbinger

2) Yes we plan on doing it in 2017

course of action - sit tight

3) Stay nebulous and unresponsive

course of action - let sub run out, check in on the guild as a f2p every other month

 

If anyone actually checked those "other threads" and this one, they would find that there are actually relatively few people posting in these spammed "merge servers NOW!!!!" threads, on either side of the debate.

 

Why wait for BW to say "We can't do it." Why not just move those remaining toons to Harbinger now?

Edited February 17, 2017 by Ratajack

[Jplankey]

They should be like http://www.eveonline.cvom and hav one server, which has an average of 40k'(40,000) players online at one time, with very little lag. Except in no security 0,0 space fleet battles, were thousands battle in epic fights.

[Keta]

Wait lol...are you seriously suggesting that there's a slight possibility, in your mind, that they actually did take a look at dead servers and liked the numbers they saw???

 

Mike...come on...they just haven't gotten around to it yet because they don't have the staff to meet their own goals.

 

I once worked for an employer whose own employee rules required the employer to perform a quarterly industry pay review and comparison to ensure our pay never fell below 75% as good as anyone else. After a couple of years of never hearing the results of that comparison and knowing the total compensation was well below the 75th percentile, they were asked about it. "We are running the studies quarterly as required. Nothings say we have to share that information with you." The employees formed a union shortly thereafter.

 

I suspect if they ran the studies of server population, load and costs they just didn't bother to explain it to us. I don't think we can form a union though.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Keta

[MaximumOwnage]

They should be like http://www.eveonline.cvom and hav one server, which has an average of 40k'(40,000) players online at one time, with very little lag. Except in no security 0,0 space fleet battles, were thousands battle in epic fights.

 

My sub ends on the 21st. I never played EVE. Is it worth playing and can you tell me a little about it?

[Andryah]

They should be like http://www.eveonline.cvom and hav one server, which has an average of 40k'(40,000) players online at one time, with very little lag. Except in no security 0,0 space fleet battles, were thousands battle in epic fights.

 

Some people are easily fooled by sleight of hand.

 

It's not one server, it's a clustered array of servers, one for each solar system, and the ability to switch in more resources if a solar system gets crowded. The faction capital solar systems are larger because they are always very crowded.

 

Not to mention there are no mechanics to port and join any group endeavor.. you have to get in one of your ships and travel there, so there is really no comparison to classic MMO group play, grouping, and certainly no LFG. You need to be in a good corporation if you want to play with the big boys in EVE. Otherwise, if you go the independent route, you are simply yet another rat moving through a solar system hunting, gathering, and dying. Anyone used to, and dependent on, random queues for grouping will be sorely disappointed.

 

EVE online has a steep learning curve, months and months of training to acquire (though you can train while logged out), and is more about economic PvP then actual PvP. Sure.. there are random predatory skirmishes in low sec space, and corp on corp large battles.... but it's mostly an economic and social game centered around corporations. It's a good game, and fun to play, though pretty unforgiving, and your character is basically whatever ship your pod is currently loaded into, and whatever ships, skills, and equipment you have trained to use (unlock) AND have the funds to actually acquire and equip. New players have it rough compared to old trained and wealthy veterans.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Andryah

[americanaussie]

They should be like http://www.eveonline.cvom and hav one server, which has an average of 40k'(40,000) players online at one time, with very little lag. Except in no security 0,0 space fleet battles, were thousands battle in epic fights.

 

As long as it's everyone else who suffers from the latency. We've already gone from a nice 20-40 to 186-250 so yeah. But that's beside the point. My computer wouldn't handle the 40000 fighting at once. It's not fair to take away location servers

[spectreclees]

Just give up hope they'll ever add a mega server or cross server queueing. They seem to be against either. I moved all my characters to Harbinger recently and won't be looking back.

[MaximumOwnage]

Just give up hope they'll ever add a mega server or cross server queueing. They seem to be against either. I moved all my characters to Harbinger recently and won't be looking back.

 

And then Harbinger goes the way of POT5. And then you know what? Its lights out for SWTOR. They could have headed all this off years ago, but they decided to ride the ship as it sank like a wild bull at a rodeo. So sad to watch this happen. And make no mistake, even with the over flowing amount of new transfers to Harbinger, its population continues to sink and queue time continue to get longer.

[stoopicus]

My sub ends on the 21st. I never played EVE. Is it worth playing and can you tell me a little about it?

 

EVE is amazing but it is very different. The thing that has made EVE incredible is that CCP has embraced player emergent behavior to the point that *very* little is forbidden in the game. The game is 100% PvP, even in the PvE areas, which really irritates CareBears (EVE term for PvE-only players).

 

Griefing? No problem, unless it involves hate speech or out of game threats. Scamming other players? The same. PvP? It's ALL PvP, with multiple entry points (0.0 space being the most famous but actually the tamest, compared with Faction War or Lowsec Piracy.) And then there's always HiSec space for the PvEers. Where they CAN be attacked by players, but the security factions will show up and blast the attackers.

 

There is a ton of stuff to do in the game. Here's the famous chart.

 

The market is extremely cutthroat - I would say the GTN is about 10 to 100 times easier to make a killing on than the the EVE markets. They call this "Market PvP." How cutthroat? There are market data feeds and trading tools similar to simpler versions of the tools used by stock traders, including historical analysis and volume/volatility graphs.

 

Your characters ("Capsuleers") are abstract immortal entities; you never really run around as a character. It's all starship combat - but starships are closer to "ammunition" than something you value and hold on to. You will have dozens of ships, commanding one at a time.

 

The starship combat system is closer to maybe submarine/PT Boat combat than anything else. It's interesting.

 

All in all a great game, I recommend trying it.

Edited February 19, 2017 by stoopicus

[mmmbuddah]

I would rather them fix the existing lag / ability delay issues before doing any of this.....

[SteveTheCynic]

This may be an "ideal" situation, but it is far from reality.

 

None of the server merges were simply "copy and paste". In every server merge, guilds had to be reformed on the new server (and pray that your guild name had not already been taken), then the GM had to go through customer support to have the guild bank re-authorized. Getting the guild bank re-authorized could take weeks, or longer, by itself. Anything in the guild banks was lost and had to be replaced. Customer support was unable to simply "restore" the contents of the guild banks.

 

That was also long before the implementation of guild ships, guild strongholds, legacy storage, etc.

 

Now, in addition to the headaches that guilds suffered in the previous merges, add guild ships, guild strongholds, legacy storage, etc. to the list of headaches that players will have to suffer.

I *said* it was an ideal, and that there is no guarantee of it reflecting reality...

 

And the last paragraph is something I alluded to at the end of the post, where I expressed doubts that whatever they used for the previous merges has been correctly kept up to date.

 

I think there's a strong possibility that it would be an unmitigated disaster if they did a new set of server merges. It should be possible to do it right, but I'm not really that kind of optimistic. (And the scenario of mass departures following such a thing is probably part of why they are reluctant to merge servers.)

[Ratajack]

I *said* it was an ideal, and that there is no guarantee of it reflecting reality...

 

And the last paragraph is something I alluded to at the end of the post, where I expressed doubts that whatever they used for the previous merges has been correctly kept up to date.

 

I think there's a strong possibility that it would be an unmitigated disaster if they did a new set of server merges. It should be possible to do it right, but I'm not really that kind of optimistic. (And the scenario of mass departures following such a thing is probably part of why they are reluctant to merge servers.)

 

While you understand all that, it seems that many of the "Merge servers NOW!!! I need LFG fodder!!!!" crowd either do not understand or choose to ignore the potential ramifications of a server merge.

 

My response to your post was an attempt to clarify and emphasize those ramifications.

[HuaRya]

 

I think there's a strong possibility that it would be an unmitigated disaster if they did a new set of server merges. It should be possible to do it right, but I'm not really that kind of optimistic. (And the scenario of mass departures following such a thing is probably part of why they are reluctant to merge servers.)

 

Welp they have to do something because even Harbinger is now hitting Light at certain times of the day it was normally Standard. With the population stretched out on different servers the 'dead factor feeling' is amplified.

[Lunafox]

And let me guess, based on your past posts, you think the only server that everyone should be playing on is Harbinger. NO THANK YOU.

 

Ebon Hawk is doing fine, I can get groups when or if I need them with no problems. I have no intention of moving to Harbinger. It is not the only server that should be existing.

 

I will agree some of the old pvp servers need to be merged but not everyone wants to be on Harbinger.

 

I agree with your take on this. Shadowlands is doing just fine too. I see plenty of people running about doing their thing.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Lunafox

[MaximumOwnage]

Oh BTW bioware, thanks for responding to this issue like we asked.

 

Is it too much to respond to a simple and yet many times asked question about server plans?

 

The silence on this issue is deafening.

[CKNORTH]

I am contemplating moving to Bergeren Colony myself, I don't even want to log into Harbringer at all. it just isn't fun for me there anymore. I am not much of an RP person, but from other games the RP community's are far more friendly and a lot more casual/social. which is more or less what this game Is about these days, and it fits well with my gaming needs.

 

if the Dev's do read posts. its time to let the OP's People and PvP people get some love, there is enough social content to last literally an MMO lifetime in this game.

Edited February 19, 2017 by CKNORTH

[Andryah]

I am contemplating moving to Bergeren Colony myself, I don't even want to log into Harbringer at all. it just isn't fun for me there anymore. I am not much of an RP person, but from other games the RP community's are far more friendly and a lot more casual/social. which is more or less what this game Is about these days, and it fits well with my gaming needs.

 

if the Dev's do read posts. its time to let the OP's People and PvP people get some love, there is enough social content to last literally an MMO lifetime in this game.

 

The thing about Begeren Colony is it is a small and fairly tight knit player base. So I would suggest checking it out before committing to it.

 

Nothing wrong with BC, just that it is on the smaller side and as such the economy tends to be more expensive, and you really need a cluster of friends or a good guild if you want to group easily. So it really depends on your needs.

 

I would also suggest you check out also Ebon Hawk as it is the second largest server in the US and is very active, great economy (better then Harbinger to be honest), and a lot of good guilds playing there. Yes it is an east coast server, so it will have a bit higher latency (around 100ms from the west coast), but it is a solid server.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Andryah

[Andryah]

it seems that many of the "Merge servers NOW!!! I need LFG fodder!!!!" crowd either do not understand or choose to ignore the potential ramifications of a server merge.

 

Yeah, the "broken record crowd" very much have an agenda here.... they want lots of players on their server, but they need to be players that will constantly random queue and LFG too... which is unlikely to happen other then players transferring it for exactly the same reasons as the broken record crowd.

 

These are the same people that get their shorts bunched up when the studio does not do exactly what they demand, and yet have no problems with telling the studio to force their play style and needs upon every other player in the game via forced merges. They really care for nobody but themselves... so I guess we need one server for them named "Selfish Server". Right now the defacto "Selfish Server" is The Harbinger... but that too may change eventually given the fickle nature of such players.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Andryah

[CKNORTH]

The thing about Begeren Colony is it is a small tight knit player base. So I would suggest checking it out before committing to it.

 

Nothing wrong with BC, just that it is on the smaller side and as such the economy tends to be more expensive, and you really need a cluster of friends or a good guild if you want to group easily. So it really depends on your needs.

 

I would also suggest you check out also Ebon Hawk as it is the second largest server in the US and is very active, great economy (better then Harbinger to be honest), and a lot of good guilds playing there. Yes it is an east coast server, so it will have a bit higher latency (around 100ms from the west coast), but it is a solid server.

 

thanks for the advice I might actually do that. I did notice on Beregen Colony it was quite light. and I haven't transferred yet. so I will probably go to EbonHawk

[HuaRya]

Oh BTW bioware, thanks for responding to this issue like we asked.

 

Is it too much to respond to a simple and yet many times asked question about server plans?

 

The silence on this issue is deafening.

 

Who would've thought that a part of playing SWTOR was to come on the forums and alert the devs to things like population. Seems like a very basic function of running an MMO would be to make sure the theme park has enough people to go on the rides. They might as well remove the weekly lockout on the operations so we can ride the roller coaster again and again.

[Eialune]

thanks for the advice I might actually do that. I did notice on Beregen Colony it was quite light. and I haven't transferred yet. so I will probably go to EbonHawk

 

Ebon Hawk's roleplaying community is generally very friendly. There are jerks, and trolls, and Dromund Kaas General chat gets WEIRD, but it's a nice place. I'm allergic to a-holes and I spend less time sneezing on Ebon Hawk than I did when I tried other servers.

 

It's pretty active, and has a good economy. I'm not sure why people want to ignore that in order to smash it together with Harbinger. I can generally find a group on EH, and any time I do one of the open world Heroics, there are usually at least 2-3 other people doing the same one during early hours and usually 6+ on weekday evenings. The planets usually have 20-50 people on them at a time, again, depending on day of the week and time of day (and planet - nobody wants to sit around on Taris any longer than they have to.) I will note these numbers are for Imperial instances, I'm not sure how they vary Republic-side.

 

We don't need to be smashed together with Harbinger. And we don't need to be the sacrificial lamb for the sake of shaving 5 minutes off of their queue times, either.

[MaximumOwnage]

The thing about Begeren Colony is it is a small and fairly tight knit player base. So I would suggest checking it out before committing to it.

 

Nothing wrong with BC, just that it is on the smaller side and as such the economy tends to be more expensive, and you really need a cluster of friends or a good guild if you want to group easily. So it really depends on your needs.

 

I would also suggest you check out also Ebon Hawk as it is the second largest server in the US and is very active, great economy (better then Harbinger to be honest), and a lot of good guilds playing there. Yes it is an east coast server, so it will have a bit higher latency (around 100ms from the west coast), but it is a solid server.

 

Ebon Hawk may be the second largest NA server, but that is like saying you have 2 cars in a race a corvette and a Honda civic. And then you say that the civic came in second place to the corvette. Its not even comparable even thpough its in second.

 

EH is in horrible shape. Queue pops only during peak if that. Your cruel to suggest this server.