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Server Merge Discussion Thread


EricMusco

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rp is more than just "chat" it's a sense of community and the "feel" of the server. Even the economy is a bit different on an rp server, as rp'ers might value things a bit different than the average player. A "chat" or instance is a very poor substitute for a server and would probably just ruin it.

 

I've been on RP server in SWG, and have even done quite a bit back then, and can be quite fun to a point for me. But, other people from other servers always think that RP'ers are crazy loons because they just don't understand what Role-playing means, and thus are the attacked all the time. I've seen it quite a bit here on Swtor myself with the non Rp=player servers.

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Any merger of server MUST protect the monetary and credit investments players have already made into Strongholds and Flagships.

 

A new naming system should also be added that would allow multiple users to have the same name (such as a hidden prefix based on account name), this is possible, ESO does it.

 

 

All The Best

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Going to repeat my response in regards to instance rp

 

No that will not work. Greifers and trolls will still be able to grief rp. There is no way adding a rp instance will help keep griefers off the rp instances. It will not work like a pvp instance because I think if you grief a pvp player he can just kill you on a pvp instance, there is nothing stopping a troll/griefer from doing that on a rp instance.

 

90 CC is a low barrier to entry for people who want to grief/troll. It's not like JM and BC are pristine wonderlands as is.

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Can someone articulate why they DON'T want server merges?

Please don't include reasons like "My stronghold/ guild/ achievements won't transfer".

Let's assume for the sake of discussion, that BW can get the transfer process 100% perfect and nothing is lost.

What is the argument against merges at that point ?

The only solid reasoning I've seen thus far has been that RP players want to be left alone.

Is there anything else?

 

Thanks,

Brian

 

You don't have that right to ask that, as you are leaving out the Reality of what can happen with mergers.

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I am playing on T3-M4, and from my point of view the number of 'looking for group' messages in the fleet chat have significantly decreased over the last months. I assume this is also true for overall server population. If a server feels dead, I imagine also more players leaving the game and only few migrating to other servers.

 

I don't see any reason not to merge at least the language specific PVE and PVP servers, since you now have both zones available on any server. Not sure about the RP servers - but is there really serious roleplay going on?

 

Personally I wouldn't even mind being put on a mixed language or english european server if it means actually more players online. Having to change my characters names would also not be an issue, i want to play this game with others not stare at my name tag all day long...

 

So yes - please start merging servers now!

Edited by _Luke_
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90 CC is a low barrier to entry for people who want to grief/troll. It's not like JM and BC are pristine wonderlands as is.

 

That may be true, but a person is far less likely to spend 90 CC to transfer (along with all that a transfer entails), leave their guild and friends behind on the old server simply to grief RP'ers.

 

A separate RP means that a griefer simply has to switch instances to grief those RP'ers.

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Some players prefer a lower population. Some do not want to spend all their time fighting over resources or quest objectives. While it is possible at times to move to another instance, all too often there is only one instance with a population some players find to be too crowded, often just beneath the threshold for a new instance to be created.

 

Some prefer a more respectful and responsible community than one will find on Harbinger, the highest population server and also the server with the highest percentage (and number) of players who display "less than desirable" behavior. Some do not even want to think about being forcibly merged into the cesspool that is Harbinger.

 

Just spitballing ideas here:

What if the threshold for creating instances was lower? We know that there have been upgrades to hardware and OS in the server farm, so this may be do-able.

What if there was a way to spawn X boss on command. If you want to kill Nightmare Pilgrim, but he's already been killed, maybe you could put a quarter in the machine to make him appear?

 

The toxic chat environment is a problem everywhere. BW needs to step up the moderation of chat in general. Do you think stricter policies would help? How about chat channels restricted to a certain instance? So the RP instance of fleet doesn't see the PVE instance, etc

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I am playing on T3-M4, and from my point of view the number of 'looking for group' messages in the fleet chat have significantly decreased over the last months. I assume this is also true for overall server population. If a server feels dead, I imagine also more players leaving the game and only few migrating to other servers.

 

I don't see any reason not to merge at least the language specific PVE and PVP servers, since you now have both zones available on any server. Not sure about the RP servers - but is there really serious roleplay going on?

 

Personally I wouldn't even mind being put on a mixed language or english european server if it means actually more players online.

 

So yes - please start merging servers now!

 

 

I think it would be good for some server to be Merged, but for people to realize they could lose some or all of their Cartel Market stuff, Legacy stuff, their Names, along with Strongholds and the stuff they have in them.

 

Mergers can help, no doubt, but for some it will also ruin things. Maybe people won't lose all those things i mentioned, but they should be prepared for it. Good and Bad.

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Just spitballing ideas here:

What if the threshold for creating instances was lower? We know that there have been upgrades to hardware and OS in the server farm, so this may be do-able.

What if there was a way to spawn X boss on command. If you want to kill Nightmare Pilgrim, but he's already been killed, maybe you could put a quarter in the machine to make him appear?

 

The toxic chat environment is a problem everywhere. BW needs to step up the moderation of chat in general. Do you think stricter policies would help? How about chat channels restricted to a certain instance? So the RP instance of fleet doesn't see the PVE instance, etc

 

But those are only "what ifs", and not the reality. We should be talking about the reality of what is happening now.

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Do you think character name + legacy name will solve the naming issue ?

 

Nah, just add #somenumber to name and make it less visible in chat then name before #, invisible on nameplate and visible on 'Large Tooltip' UI element.

 

Example:

 

Rat#3751

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But those are only "what ifs", and not the reality. We should be talking about the reality of what is happening now.

 

Seems to me like nothing is happening now :confused:

This whole thread is speculation, isn't it ?

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Just spitballing ideas here:

What if the threshold for creating instances was lower? We know that there have been upgrades to hardware and OS in the server farm, so this may be do-able.

What if there was a way to spawn X boss on command. If you want to kill Nightmare Pilgrim, but he's already been killed, maybe you could put a quarter in the machine to make him appear?

 

The toxic chat environment is a problem everywhere. BW needs to step up the moderation of chat in general. Do you think stricter policies would help? How about chat channels restricted to a certain instance? So the RP instance of fleet doesn't see the PVE instance, etc

 

is it possible to make the "threshold for a new instance" low enough to be effective without having complaints from those who need to see (and/or grief) other players or the "instance is dead"?

 

Spawning X boss on command defeats the purpose of spawn timers and does nothing for those mobs that are not bosses, but are quest objectives, to say nothing of clickable objects as quest objectives.

 

The "less than desirable" behavior is by no means limited to chat. Even if BW were to actively increase chat moderation, that would do nothing with regards to the "less than desirable" behavior displayed by many in the open world.

 

 

As a previous poster noted, all of your "suggestions" amount to nothing more than "what if's". While I do not mind responding to them, I do have some reservations about "what if's".

 

Some people tend to take a "what if" posed by a poster and interpret that as a "promise" that BW is actively working on making that "what if" a reality, if not a "promise" that BW has already made that "what if" a reality.

 

Let's not lose sight of the fact that these ARE "what if's" and they are HUGE "what if's", and keep the focus on, or at least remember, what the REALITY IS.

Edited by Ratajack
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I don't want to see a merge. I love Shadowlands and enjoy playing there, and I just want to make it plain that forcing me to play in a server like Harbinger would make me very unhappy. Forcing me to play into another server won't serve to make me want to queue for group activities. I don't do them now, so why would I do them somewhere else? Making me play in a crowded place isn't going to suddenly make me want to interact with people. I don't group and I don't do group activities.

 

Not to mention, I don't want to lose everything I've worked so hard to build up. I've been here since before launch and over that time, I've bought myself a guild ship for my alts and my husband's alts, decorated it, I've also got a guild stronghold on NS, decorated. I don't want to see that destroyed and taken away. If that happens, I WILL quit.

 

There are things that stand to be lost too, like clothing slots, which I've bought many of. I don't want to lose that either. Not to mention names. I don't see why I should have to sacrifice everything I've earned just so that someone can queue for PVP or an OP/FP 10 seconds sooner. :mad:

 

ETA: I also don't understand why people don't fix their own problem. Queues not fast enough? Hate where you are, then why don't YOU transfer to where you want to be, instead of trying to make other people miserable.

Edited by Lunafox
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is it possible to make the "threshold for a new instance" low enough to be effective without having complaints from those who need to see (and/or grief) other players or the "instance is dead"?

 

Spawning X boss on command defeats the purpose of spawn timers and does nothing for those mobs that are not bosses, but are quest objectives, to say nothing of clickable objects as quest objectives.

 

The "less than desirable" behavior is by no means limited to chat. Even if BW were to actively increase chat moderation, that would do nothing with regards to the "less than desirable" behavior displayed by many in the open world.

All fair points. You see why I'm not a developer :D

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All fair points. You see why I'm not a developer :D

 

Thank you for acknowledging that those are fair points. Too many simply choose to ignore or dismiss those concerns, as well as any other concerns held by those opposed to server merges.

 

I'm not a developer, either, but years as a technician has given me a better perspective to see and try to point out potential "problems" before the become "reality", as well as a healthy respect for those developers.

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I don't want to see a merge. I love Shadowlands and enjoy playing there, and I just want to make it plain that forcing me to play in a server like Harbinger would make me very unhappy. Forcing me to play into another server won't serve to make me want to queue for group activities. I don't do them now, so why would I do them somewhere else? Making me play in a crowded place isn't going to suddenly make me want to interact with people. I don't group and I don't do group activities..

 

This is an MMO and at the end of the day if Bioware decide to merge servers and this includes losing anything you have there is not a thing you can do about it and a big IF they ever do a merge it will be based on a business decision not on players wanting it and i'm sure Bioware will do the best they can to give people certain items back.

 

Everything in SWTOR you don't own it including in game items, usernames, when you sign up and read the TOS it states very clearly about this and we all agreed to this including my self .

 

SWTOR is a great game if it still has 2 or 5 or 10 years left in it at some stage we are all going to lose everything anyway and when that day comes are you prepared ?

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This is an MMO and at the end of the day if Bioware decide to merge servers and this includes losing anything you have there is not a thing you can do about it and a big IF they ever do a merge it will be based on a business decision not on players wanting it and i'm sure Bioware will do the best they can to give people certain items back.

 

Everything in SWTOR you don't own it including in game items, usernames, when you sign up and read the TOS it states very clearly about this and we all agreed to this including my self .

 

SWTOR is a great game if it still has 2 or 5 or 10 years left in it at some stage we are all going to lose everything anyway and when that day comes are you prepared ?

 

If BW continues their current stance of not merging servers, there is not a thing you can do about it.

 

While I do not work for BW and cannot say with certainty, but it appears to me that BW is making a business decision not to piss off those opposed to server merges, while also making accommodations for those that prefer a higher population server and leaving the choice of server/server population in the hands of the individual player.

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Disagreement and discussion is fine, personal attacks are not.

 

-eric

 

There is an easier, more effective solution than merging servers. Cross server group que. This will fix two issues common with MMO's.

1. A single server never dies and a single server will not get too overloaded, as the game will spread players out to less populated server when one gets too full. There is always group content available through the que's. While east coast servers are going to bed for the night, West coast servers are hitting prime time. By the time the West coast server players are calling it a night, the early morning East coast players are getting online. There would be no more, "this server is better for PVP, or that server is better for OPS. All SWTOR servers would be good for ALL group content.

2. It eliminates players bashing each other, in general chat, like they tend to do after a bad OPS run or PVP match. It would be pointless to player bash someone from Harbinger in Shadowland's general chat, they are not going to see your rude comments, and the other players reading it will have no idea who the player being bashed is.

I would think this would be a cheaper option than server mergers or buying two mega servers for East and West coasts. Just something to think about..

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The servers need to be merged, there isn't any question about it anymore. Other games can use one server in NA and one in Europe and everything works, SWTOR can too.

 

However, that said, the merge has to be mostly transparent to players. So, names need something to make them unique so active players with matching names don't have to give it up. Guilds and guild assets need to move in their entirety. Strongholds, etc., need to move as is, no unlocking, no redecorating, etc. (And if you have multiples copies on different server, you should get to pick the one you keep.) No losing outfits, etc. Now, this shouldn't be complicated to make happen, but past experience says BW has had problems with it.

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The servers need to be merged, there isn't any question about it anymore. Other games can use one server in NA and one in Europe and everything works, SWTOR can too.

 

However, that said, the merge has to be mostly transparent to players. So, names need something to make them unique so active players with matching names don't have to give it up. Guilds and guild assets need to move in their entirety. Strongholds, etc., need to move as is, no unlocking, no redecorating, etc. (And if you have multiples copies on different server, you should get to pick the one you keep.) No losing outfits, etc. Now, this shouldn't be complicated to make happen, but past experience says BW has had problems with it.

 

Cross server group que would also eliminate most of this issue also. If two players get in a group with the same name, one gets an (*) by their name. For example: two players named Fred. one is Fred, the other is Fred(*) while in the group content.

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There is an easier, more effective solution than merging servers. Cross server group que. This will fix two issues common with MMO's.

1. A single server never dies and a single server will not get too overloaded, as the game will spread players out to less populated server when one gets too full. There is always group content available through the que's. While east coast servers are going to bed for the night, West coast servers are hitting prime time. By the time the West coast server players are calling it a night, the early morning East coast players are getting online. There would be no more, "this server is better for PVP, or that server is better for OPS. All SWTOR servers would be good for ALL group content.

2. It eliminates players bashing each other, in general chat, like they tend to do after a bad OPS run or PVP match. It would be pointless to player bash someone from Harbinger in Shadowland's general chat, they are not going to see your rude comments, and the other players reading it will have no idea who the player being bashed is.

I would think this would be a cheaper option than server mergers or buying two mega servers for East and West coasts. Just something to think about..

 

Unless I am mistaken, BW has already tried cross server queuing, at least internally, and was unable to get it to function properly. One of the issues encountered was players being "returned" to the wrong server.

 

This may be due to the heavily modified alpha version of the engine being used, but I cannot say.

 

Even if BW could resolve the issues surrounding cross server queuing, cross server queuing brings its own set of problems, not the least of which is the loss of behavioral accountability.

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Heavy handed forced server mergers are not necessary if you incentivize players to move on their own. Doing so is fairly easy.

 

1. Allow one free server transfer to all characters from existing servers to target servers only so it is no cost to the player to move.

2. Work with guilds to transfer guild assets from existing low use servers to target servers

3. Provide an opt-in group move option to guild to bring their members over as a whole who opt-in for the transfer

4. Draw a line in the sand for the move and offer an in game per character prize for players on the target server as a reward for being on the mega server

5. After the deadline allow a grace period for self initiated transfers before finally doing a forced transfer.

 

I don't want the fate of my guild left up to heavy handed merger techniques that could decimate it. It's taken a lot of time and effort to grow my guild and acquire the resources it has today. I lost one guild in earlier server mergers, I don't have it in me to loose another. Not after five years of building the one I have now with over two hundred and fifty active members.

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