Server Merge Discussion Thread

[Tisaren]

He did talk about NOT FORCING anyone to move, and allowing people to remain where they are, if they choose to do so.

This is good enough for me.

 

Let's hope he sticks to his word and doesn't cave in to the demands of the groupthink collective. Long live the individual player!

[Yodial]

Six news servers: Pve est and Pve west,RP US,french,english and german EU with the possibility of transferring on the server that we want.

 

I agree for crossfaction to warzones, GSF, FPs, uprisings and operations.

[casirabit]

This is good enough for me.

 

Let's hope he sticks to his word and doesn't cave in to the demands of the groupthink collective. Long live the individual player!

 

This.

[ImNotFatImObese]

When I log on to Harbinger I see well over 100 people on fleet.I belive last time I logged in there was 180ish. Sadly this is about as many that were on Jedi Covenant and Shadow lands combined. People are leaving the game cause their guilds die and pug groups don't form like they use to. Like when you could be on Jedi Covenant or Shadow lands and have well over 100 on fleet most of day and pug groups or guilds needing a person or two at any time of day or night. These two East Coast servers just need merged together.

I feel the Devs are are ignoring the need for merger cause they don't want to admit the population is not what it used to be 2 years ago. As long as the Devs ignore this and dance around it cause they are in denial.

I remember reading notes from a live stream about mergers and they said they wanted to hold off and see what kind of additional player base they get when KOTET came out before they would do anything. Well that has been some time now and after coming back from a several month break the population is even lower than it was when I left. Sadly this is summer time. People are out of school and summersee use to have higher populations especially late into the night. Now you log in at night and see like less than 20 on fleet. I thought it was bad a year ago when it would be in the 50s. It is time for a merger.

Merge the servers and make SWTOR great again!

[DWho]

When I log on to Harbinger I see well over 100 people on fleet.I belive last time I logged in there was 180ish. Sadly this is about as many that were on Jedi Covenant and Shadow lands combined. People are leaving the game cause their guilds die and pug groups don't form like they use to. Like when you could be on Jedi Covenant or Shadow lands and have well over 100 on fleet most of day and pug groups or guilds needing a person or two at any time of day or night. These two East Coast servers just need merged together.

I feel the Devs are are ignoring the need for merger cause they don't want to admit the population is not what it used to be 2 years ago. As long as the Devs ignore this and dance around it cause they are in denial.

I remember reading notes from a live stream about mergers and they said they wanted to hold off and see what kind of additional player base they get when KOTET came out before they would do anything. Well that has been some time now and after coming back from a several month break the population is even lower than it was when I left. Sadly this is summer time. People are out of school and summersee use to have higher populations especially late into the night. Now you log in at night and see like less than 20 on fleet. I thought it was bad a year ago when it would be in the 50s. It is time for a merger.

Merge the servers and make SWTOR great again!

 

You don't see over a 100 on Harbinger either outside of Prime Time (been there plenty of times when there are only 50-60). JC gets to 100 in Prime Time regularly. Bioware has already stated there is no current plan for a merger. They have said they want to allow players to play where they want. I'd expect it to become easier to move guilds long before a server merge occurs.

 

Edit: Just checked fleet on both Harb had 67 and JC had 58 (have screenshots if you want) - no second instance on either

Edited June 27, 2017 by DWho

[Andryah]

Anyone who hasn't actually listened to the badfeeling pod cast with Keith really should.

http://badfeelingpodcast.com. Episode 162

It's obvious that he cares and understands the issues of population density. He has a grasp on the issues from both sides of this discussion and I think what ever their solution it will be to accommodate as many of us as possible.

I really like how he wants to protect people's preferred type of play and the feel of the servers they want to play on. He seems to be across all of the points we've brought up in this thread. From guild assets to pop times.

 

Unlike so many in this thread.. who demand server merges because they personally think it will mean more random PuGers to group with.

 

I agree that Keith's interview was enlightening, and I agree that Keith "gets the issues" and does appear to be committed to not disenfranchising different factions in the server merge discussions. But we will have to wait and see what they actually do.... because talk is just talk.. and understanding =/= action, but it does inform for sensible action.

[Andryah]

To that end, some people, myself included, think that it would be a good idea for BioWare to grant people the opportunity to move characters from low population server to higher population servers in advance of doing whatever mergers they may be considering. What's wrong with that, and what is wrong with providing a reminder that they have done so before?

 

Never said there was anything wrong with your point of view. Only that....

 

1) it runs counter to what MMO studios historically do to incent players to move around. I understand that it fits your narrative to argue otherwise.

 

2) there is no actual precedent for this MMO to do what you want in the current context. I already explained and showed how what they did in 2012 was a "one off". I'm not trying to fit information to support a narrative, however you are.. and you are presenting opinion as fact.

 

I would not even bother to point out the atypical nature of studios incenting players to move from low pop to high pop servers...... except the "pro merger nao!" crowd will try to run with it as though it's the new sliced bread in the pantry. It's not... and there is little or no incentive for a studio to do this. Yes...yes, I get that some players think it's a great idea.... for all the wrong reasons I have already identified.

Edited June 28, 2017 by Andryah

[MaximumOwnage]

Clearly Harbinger has reached an all time low in population. Everywhere on fleet both PVP crowds and PVE crowds are complaining they are finding difficult and timely to find groups. Everyone is complaining about the decline in population.

 

It just seems to me foolish to have let this issue go as long as it has. It has seriously been years now that the bulk of the servers have gone into disarray. I can only imagine how many negative effects on this game this has had over the past few years. We should have been down to 3 NA servers 2 years ago. Now with the current population left on Shadowlands, Jedi Covenant, and Ebon Hawk we will be lucky to have enough players to backfill 1 server to a healthy status.

 

I am concerned at this point if consolidating every NA server into one server will have a significant enough impact to actually bring this game to a healthy state.

 

IMO you guys waited to long to address this issue. I hate to say I told you so, but I started beating this "server consolidation" drum about 1 1/2 ago. I cant believe nothing has been done. And at the time I came out of retirement to start posting on the forums it was already 6 months overdue. That means 2 years you guys have had to at least close 1/2 of the desolate servers. That should have been done 2 years ago.

 

My 2 cents. Ill keep the change.

[HuaRya]

Clearly Harbinger has reached an all time low in population. Everywhere on fleet both PVP crowds and PVE crowds are complaining they are finding difficult and timely to find groups. Everyone is complaining about the decline in population.

 

It just seems to me foolish to have let this issue go as long as it has. It has seriously been years now that the bulk of the servers have gone into disarray. I can only imagine how many negative effects on this game this has had over the past few years. We should have been down to 3 NA servers 2 years ago. Now with the current population left on Shadowlands, Jedi Covenant, and Ebon Hawk we will be lucky to have enough players to backfill 1 server to a healthy status.

 

I am concerned at this point if consolidating every NA server into one server will have a significant enough impact to actually bring this game to a healthy state.

 

IMO you guys waited to long to address this issue. I hate to say I told you so, but I started beating this "server consolidation" drum about 1 1/2 ago. I cant believe nothing has been done. And at the time I came out of retirement to start posting on the forums it was already 6 months overdue. That means 2 years you guys have had to at least close 1/2 of the desolate servers. That should have been done 2 years ago.

 

My 2 cents. Ill keep the change.

 

Welcome Back. While you were away we finally got a person in charge who recognizes the benefits of getting more of the active players of the game together. According to Keith they actually now have the hardware that is capable of making SWTOR more like modern MMO's where everyone playing the game is more connected.

 

You may recall the opponents of server merges back then were those people who solo'd heroics for big money, they went away after that was nerfed. Now we have RP'ers who feel they are harassed by non-RP'ers but when I logged onto TEH I found dozens and dozens on a silent fleet perfectly happy sitting around that center bar area being left to their own devices. Were queues popping or were people trying to form groups? No.

[IntegrationArch]

Transparent to guild and user server merges are ok. The prior forced mergers were brutal for many unwelcome reasons.

[TyonYlle]

Now we have RP'ers who feel they are harassed by non-RP'ers but when I logged onto TEH I found dozens and dozens on a silent fleet perfectly happy sitting around that center bar area being left to their own devices.

 

You do realize that "whisper" is a thing, right? A lot of time the trolling happens via whispers. Not always, but it does happen, to wave it away is simply foolishness just because you don't see any happen.

[TUXs]

You do realize that "whisper" is a thing, right? A lot of time the trolling happens via whispers. Not always, but it does happen, to wave it away is simply foolishness just because you don't see any happen.

And don't you just report and /ignore those people? I don't get it...

[TyonYlle]

And don't you just report and /ignore those people? I don't get it...

 

Yes, but it's still irritating. It would help if we had a longer ignore list because I usually reserve that for gold scammers.

[TUXs]

Yes, but it's still irritating. It would help if we had a longer ignore list because I usually reserve that for gold scammers.

I agree. It should be infinitely long. It can't even cover one players possible toons on a single server now. It's clearly too limited right now.

[DWho]

I agree. It should be infinitely long. It can't even cover one players possible toons on a single server now. It's clearly too limited right now.

 

I always wonder how many people who complain they can't get group finder pops are actually on the ignore lists of the people who use GF regularly. There should be some feature that tells you how many ignore lists you are on (not listing names which would be open for retaliation).

[casirabit]

I always wonder how many people who complain they can't get group finder pops are actually on the ignore lists of the people who use GF regularly. There should be some feature that tells you how many ignore lists you are on (not listing names which would be open for retaliation).

 

This I wonder as well due to the ones that are complaining about not getting groups since they also seem very toxic on the forums. Makes you wonder.

[CaptRogue]

Yes, but it's still irritating. It would help if we had a longer ignore list because I usually reserve that for gold scammers.

I agree. It should be infinitely long. It can't even cover one players possible toons on a single server now. It's clearly too limited right now.

 

You do know you can delete from the ignore list right? lol

No it's actually simple to just ignore the gold spammers and next time you login just take a few seconds to delete last time's names. They don't keep them for more than a day. Sometimes less than that probably.

That way your ignore list isn't full. (It may not be the greatest thing, but it's definitely a work around.)

[TyonYlle]

You do know you can delete from the ignore list right? lol

No it's actually simple to just ignore the gold spammers and next time you login just take a few seconds to delete last time's names. They don't keep them for more than a day. Sometimes less than that probably.

That way your ignore list isn't full. (It may not be the greatest thing, but it's definitely a work around.)

 

And another work around until BW can figure out how to move all character assets to another server, if someone (general someone) is so desperate for a little faster queue pops in the mean time is to use a character transfer lol.

[CaptainBlackjack]

"PLEASE STOP TRYING TO GET THIS MERGE OF SERVERS ITS ONLY GOING TO HURT THE PLAYERS"

Server mergers will not improve queue pops in any significant way and for pvp probably not at all. I know these merge people can't get past it but the truth is the majority of players DO NOT PVP ever they despise it so a merger will not change that. The devs made a world pvp area and they created pvp instances and when you go there no one is there because no one wants to pvp. The only reason it happens in WZ is because you get CXP, if they took that away pvp would die a horrible death. as for PVE I have Characters on all of the servers and never have issues with queue pops for pve and the guilds run OP's so if you want that you just join a large guild and amazingly your in the OP runs. I think others here are on the right track this is more of a personality issue with some players who may have burned all their bridges.

Edited June 28, 2017 by CaptainBlackjack

[Talon_strikes]

This I wonder as well due to the ones that are complaining about not getting groups since they also seem very toxic on the forums. Makes you wonder.

I could say the same thing about the anti-merge crowd. Those who want dead servers to exist for no legitimate reasons are also quite toxic themselves.

[TUXs]

I could say the same thing about the anti-merge crowd. Those who want dead servers to exist for no legitimate reasons are also quite toxic themselves.

Agreed. But I'd call them "selfish"...not toxic. Dead servers harm the game, those advocating that Bioware do nothing are either ignorant or selfish.

[casirabit]

I could say the same thing about the anti-merge crowd. Those who want dead servers to exist for no legitimate reasons are also quite toxic themselves.

 

But who are claiming they can't get into groups? I don't recall any of the others saying they can't get into groups and have a problem with finding people to group with.

 

I know I don't. So maybe the problem is they are on ignore lists is why they can't get into groups.

 

As far as merging, even Keith stated in the bad feeling podcast he doesn't want to force people to move but yet I still see some of the merger crowd ignoring that and stomping their feet saying no we have to have mergers even after it was stated on the podcast BW doesn't want to force people to move. So again who is pushing for something that even BW isn't pushing for.

http://badfeelingpodcast.com/audio/podcasts/episode_162_final.mp3

Edited June 28, 2017 by casirabit

[TyonYlle]

But who are claiming they can't get into groups? I don't recall any of the others saying they can't get into groups and have a problem with finding people to group with.

 

I know I don't. So maybe the problem is they are on ignore lists is why they can't get into groups.

 

As far as merging, even Keith stated in the bad feeling podcast he doesn't want to force people to move but yet I still see some of the merger crowd ignoring that and stomping their feet saying no we have to have mergers even after it was stated on the podcast BW doesn't want to force people to move. So again who is pushing for something that even BW isn't pushing for.

http://badfeelingpodcast.com/audio/podcasts/episode_162_final.mp3

 

I also think that I can recall Keith saying something that he has plans, or at least he has ideas and that server population is important to him? I know, but I can't be bothered to re-listen and find his quote.

Edited June 28, 2017 by TyonYlle

[casirabit]

I also think that I can recall Keith saying something that he has plans, or at least he has ideas and that server population is important to him? I know, but I can't be bothered to re-listen and find his quote.

 

Yes he did. He said something in the lines he doesn't want to force anyone but maybe find incentives for them to leave but this would only happen if they could transfer guilds intact with all their assets and our personal assets.

[DWho]

I also think that I can recall Keith saying something that he has plans, or at least he has ideas and that server population is important to him? I know, but I can't be bothered to re-listen and find his quote.

 

What he was talking about were ways to make it easier for people to move to different servers by addressing the issues with Guild and personal assets. They are upgrading the servers to accommodate a mass migration (or surge in population overall) if one were to occur. He was very clear though, about not forcing people to move and allowing them to remain on servers they are happy with.