Server Merge Discussion Thread

[Andryah]

The main issue is guild transfer, bank/ ship/ stronghold .. the lose of those assets is a lot to loose. maybe refund back all items need to rebuild a guild bank/ ship/ stronghold @ the decorations ...

 

Keep in mind.. last time they did server merges.... they could not in any way handle guild moves. Guilds had to pack up all their stuff on characters, disband, and reform and rebuild on the new server. It went fairly smooth for some guilds, and other guilds literally had to wait months for the studio to resolve fairly simple issues of lost assets. So far, there are no signs that the studio has addressed the issue of guild moves more then 4 years later.

 

Which is the crux of most peoples objections at the moment to any sort of forced merges. Unless/until the studio actually addresses the issue with guilds and guild assets (which are much larger since 2012 with the addition of guild strongholds and ships).... players have a very valid concern here, despite the "merge servers NAO!" crowds general approach of just disregarding such concerns.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Andryah

[BilaDAD]

I have to agree Guild ship and conquest that we spent thousands of player hours. millions in credits and CARTEL $$ to build. GUILDS needs to be my main hangup as well as a lot of guild owners. move charters is cheap, to bad i loose my legacy name but that is a small price.

[BlackSilverRoar]

Merge servers 》 NEVAH!!!

 

>>> If no cross-server queing, then: Work on guild transfers <<<

Edited July 4, 2017 by Willjb

[Baith-Na]

Another option for keeping servers as is and increasing the player population would be to bring SWTOR to consoles.

I dont know if its feasible with the current engine but it would definitely extend the lifespan of the game and could be a reasonable middle ground for the people of this thread

[IntegrationArch]

Another option for keeping servers as is and increasing the player population would be to bring SWTOR to consoles.

I dont know if its feasible with the current engine but it would definitely extend the lifespan of the game and could be a reasonable middle ground for the people of this thread

 

This is possible if the BW SWTOR Game Client is upgraded to support DX11 for Win 7/8/10 XBONE MAC PS4.

Other EA games support this now like Battlefront and Mass Effect and third party games like Elder Scrolls.

how to (for Austin BioWare team):

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/gaming/walkthrough--simple-port-from-direct3d-9-to-11-1

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476190(v=vs.85).aspx

 

TOOL

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=450823575

 

EXPERT

https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/632057-updating-engine-from-dx9-to-dx11/

Edited July 6, 2017 by IntegrationArch

[HuaRya]

 

This is the easiest thing as players who want better pops can always move but a player on a merged server will not be able to move away to a quieter one after a server merge.

 

One thing that needs to be clarified for people who don't play on Harbinger. It's not the VERY HEAVY population it was 1.5 years ago. It's now far more modest and akin to let's say what Shadowland's was 2 years ago.

 

Saying people's problems will be solved by simply moving over to the promise land isn't the actual reality. Last night Harbinger was at light status around 9pm West Coast time. People will be rightfully annoyed being coerced into moving there only to find it too is shrinking at an albeit lesser pace than their origin server. Having multiple redundant servers is a solution for server population overflow. MMO's don't survive by accommodating people who like empty servers.

[Ratajack]

One thing that needs to be clarified for people who don't play on Harbinger. It's not the VERY HEAVY population it was 1.5 years ago. It's now far more modest and akin to let's say what Shadowland's was 2 years ago.

 

Saying people's problems will be solved by simply moving over to the promise land isn't the actual reality. Last night Harbinger was at light status around 9pm West Coast time. People will be rightfully annoyed being coerced into moving there only to find it too is shrinking at an albeit lesser pace than their origin server. Having multiple redundant servers is a solution for server population overflow. MMO's don't survive by accommodating people who like empty servers.

 

And merging servers into a "megaserver" will magically solve people's problems?

 

Forcing players that don't even use the LFG tool or PVP to potentially lose years worth of effort building guilds, purchasing and decorating guild ships and strongholds, purchasing and decorating personal strongholds, assembling outfits in the outfit designer, etc. will solve people's problems? Forcing people who choose to RP to be subject to the grief that they would likely suffer by being forced into a community that "looks down upon" RP'ers would solve people's problems?

[Baith-Na]

One thing that needs to be clarified for people who don't play on Harbinger. It's not the VERY HEAVY population it was 1.5 years ago. It's now far more modest and akin to let's say what Shadowland's was 2 years ago.

 

Saying people's problems will be solved by simply moving over to the promise land isn't the actual reality. Last night Harbinger was at light status around 9pm West Coast time. People will be rightfully annoyed being coerced into moving there only to find it too is shrinking at an albeit lesser pace than their origin server. Having multiple redundant servers is a solution for server population overflow. MMO's don't survive by accommodating people who like empty servers.

 

Thats a great point. I've been on Shadowlands for years and its been tough to get group finder to pop within half an hour at times. And when it does, you'd better hope your teammates are willing to queue again or you're going to be waiting for another half an hour. This wasnt the case a year ago and to think this is what harb would be in a year or so makes me think this game doesnt have another three years in it as it currently stands.

 

The technical issues of merges need to be addressed so mergers/transfers are more viable and if not then console expansion may be the only thing that can keep this game going for another five years.

[BilaDAD]

i have played on the Bastion ever since the first forced merger. now it is DEAD again,, i log in with less that 10 players on both sides.. really and i'm paying $$.. I have a guild , with ship and all .. and will not just drop it and move ..BioW needs to step in.. I did move 10 toons to harbinger.. 990 cartel cheap.. the cost to buy storage to move legacy 5 mil credits re buy 5 strongholds about 10 mil credits. but there are people there ... no open world PVP but at least there. the game is dead ATM so we need to try something

[CrazyCT]

i have played on the Bastion ever since the first forced merger. now it is DEAD again,, i log in with less that 10 players on both sides.. really and i'm paying $$.. I have a guild , with ship and all .. and will not just drop it and move ..BioW needs to step in.. I did move 10 toons to harbinger.. 990 cartel cheap.. the cost to buy storage to move legacy 5 mil credits re buy 5 strongholds about 10 mil credits. but there are people there ... no open world PVP but at least there. the game is dead ATM so we need to try something

 

So did you move, or are you not moving?

[BilaDAD]

So did you move, or are you not moving?

 

Yes I did move 10 toons to harbinger..it cost 990 cartel cheap.. the cost to buy storage to move legacy 5 mil credits COST re buy 5 strongholds about 10 mil credits. But there are people on server ... no open world PVP, but at least people there. I have left my Guild masters on The Bastion in hopes we can get this fixed ..

The game is dead ATM so we need to try something.

[CaptainBlackjack]

Well looks like we are all sharing our personal experience of population activity so here is mine. I currently spend all of my time on TEH and am in a active guild where most days there are more than half the guild members on and they are a happy goup who have spent considerable Credits and RL monies to make SH and GSH/GS so that we can have our parties and social events. We run OP's 2 days a week we also schedule heroic runs and FP groups daily. From my perspective the game is far from dead and we are very happy where we are. What I dont hear from a lot of the merge posters is what do you plan to do aside from GF ? This game will coninue to survive by the many active guild players and friend groups that logon daily and pay rhe Sub to enjoy all of the benefits of this game not by the FToP and Premium players that seem so transient.

 

TLDR: I am not looking at a failing game, it looks pretty active from my point of view !

[Ratajack]

Um gotcha but Keith in the last podcast confirmed he's bringing up a new mega server and Harby's and the rest are staying as built.....

 

Could you provide a link and source for that statement?

 

I listened to the previously linked podcast interview and Keith did talk about the possibility of adding new larger capacity servers and making more appealing for players to voluntarily transfer to a new larger capacity server. Keith also said that BW does not want to force players to move. This would seem to rule out server merges, IMO.

 

Unless I misunderstood, that was only one of the possible steps BW would take, and that was contingent upon BW being able to resolve all the issues with transferring surrounding guilds and guild assets, as well as all personal assets.

 

I do not recall hearing Keith CONFIRM that a new megaserver was being "brought in".

[IntegrationArch]

Could you provide a link and source for that statement?

 

I listened to the previously linked podcast interview and Keith did talk about the possibility of adding new larger capacity servers and making more appealing for players to voluntarily transfer to a new larger capacity server. Keith also said that BW does not want to force players to move. This would seem to rule out server merges, IMO.

 

Unless I misunderstood, that was only one of the possible steps BW would take, and that was contingent upon BW being able to resolve all the issues with transferring surrounding guilds and guild assets, as well as all personal assets.

 

I do not recall hearing Keith CONFIRM that a new megaserver was being "brought in".

 

Keith took over after the shakeup. Keith's all we got, so we want to trust and support his words and direction. If BW actively posts daily in these forums (great) and they now do thier pod casts to explain the demons, thier decisions, listen to us for next game directions for SWTOR, we have trust that. Otherwise if it's false a mass of longtimers from the remaining population won't trust BW and everything derails, right?

BW will do their best with the resources they have to smooth out merge costs and impact to guils and decos but lets not allow this to take took long, let get this out in 5.4 or 5.5

Edited July 6, 2017 by IntegrationArch

[nashish]

Instead of merging servers, match pvp groups within a region of servers (US, Euro, etc) so we can be matched up altogether regardless of what server you're on while still being able to stay in the server you're in without merging. Grouping up with group finder in this way would make solo queueing for ops viable, finding replacements easier, and everyone can still stay where they are without the fuss of dealing with which servers are active or inactive . Even GSF would benefit from a better queue time if it was able to match with the servers from the region, and we can keep the servers the way they are.

[IntegrationArch]

BW confirmed x cross server GF is not happening. Who knows when the geared toons that know the ops are online unless you use third party web sites? Everyone's in seperate time zones.... If I put together an ops and one drops out or is undergeared it can take hours and days for a suitable replacement. GF should allow us to look and add to in progress groups for tank or heal or ranged or melee replacements fast. Most have got the lockout and from a run 1 hour ago etc. GF needs a custom function an Ops Leader can control for any Ops at any time. Edited July 6, 2017 by IntegrationArch

[casirabit]

Keith took over after the shakeup. Keith's all we got, so we want to trust and support his words and direction. If BW actively posts daily in these forums (great) and they now do thier pod casts to explain the demons, thier decisions, listen to us for next game directions for SWTOR, we have trust that. Otherwise if it's false a mass of longtimers from the remaining population won't trust BW and everything derails, right?

BW will do their best with the resources they have to smooth out merge costs and impact to guils and decos but lets not allow this to take took long, let get this out in 5.4 or 5.5

 

I guess you missed the post that Keith made in here where it states this:

 

 

]Hey all,

 

Someone indicated we haven't posted in this thread since we kicked it off. As we stated in the opening post, we are not ready to discuss anything, yet, The purpose of the thread was to consolidate all the various posts about the topic so it's all contained in one place. All of your comments will absolutely have an impact on how and what we decide with respect to server populations.

 

Keith--]

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9339064#edit9339064

[IntegrationArch]

I guess you missed the post that Keith made in here where it states this:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9339064#edit9339064

 

No but we are refencing his actual words from the last pod cast where Ketih said the team got together all the code demons toon pro's and cons and said new mega servers would be best in lei of forced pop your moving and you lost your charaterer name mergers like before.

Edited July 6, 2017 by IntegrationArch

[Ratajack]

Keith took over after the shakeup. Keith's all we got, so we want to trust and support his words and direction. If BW actively posts daily in these forums (great) and they now do thier pod casts to explain the demons, thier decisions, listen to us for next game directions for SWTOR, we have trust that. Otherwise if it's false a mass of longtimers from the remaining population won't trust BW and everything derails, right?

BW will do their best with the resources they have to smooth out merge costs and impact to guils and decos but lets not allow this to take took long, let get this out in 5.4 or 5.5

 

I'm not saying that BW should do nothing, but if you're going to make this claim:

 

Um gotcha but Keith in the last podcast confirmed he's bringing up a new mega server and Harby's and the rest are staying as built.....

 

then you should have supporting evidence and links.

 

Based on the interview I heard, if BW can resolve all the issues surrounding transfers with regards to enabling guilds to transfer intact with all guild assets intact, as well as all personal assets transferring intact, we may very well see one or more new larger capacity servers added and players transferring to one of those new larger servers.

[casirabit]

No but we are refencing his actual words from the last pod cast where Ketih said the team got together all the code demons toon pro's and cons and said new mega servers would be best in lei of forced pop your moving and you lost your charaterer name mergers like before.

 

With the release of a new stronghold (on Tuesday the 11th) I do not see it being anytime this summer until they get the assets straightened out, if it happens. He mentioned not wanting to force people to move and with guild ships and strongholds and personal strongholds and outfit changer he does not want to do anything until that can be worked out correctly.

[MissilyMilcasia]

Could you provide a link and source for that statement?

 

I listened to the previously linked podcast interview and Keith did talk about the possibility of adding new larger capacity servers and making more appealing for players to voluntarily transfer to a new larger capacity server. Keith also said that BW does not want to force players to move. This would seem to rule out server merges, IMO.

 

Unless I misunderstood, that was only one of the possible steps BW would take, and that was contingent upon BW being able to resolve all the issues with transferring surrounding guilds and guild assets, as well as all personal assets.

 

I do not recall hearing Keith CONFIRM that a new megaserver was being "brought in".

 

Keith said that in the future that if there were going to be more transfers the likely answer would be new megaservers, instead of shifting people to the current ones. He did not say this was anything immediate or even reasonably on the horizon.

[IntegrationArch]

All things equal, many would prefer a new mega server *now* using the existing 1 min xfer process at 90 cc especially if we know it would be the best place for PvP/RP/PvE/GSF/crafting--selling/NiM Ops for many time zones. Money is easy to make in a large guild, you just crank it out.

 

But a sweet and busy new megaserver with no lag would be extreamly timely so our populations (GF'S/PvE/PvP/FPs/NiMs/Conquest/Active Guild toons concurrently online) don't fall below what makes sense for players and BW after back to school drop. If no BW action, more players will unsub and get established in newer systems and may be enticed by Battlefront II and other games.

 

Howevever in fall, if SWTOR Dev's sort out the fancy seamless refund of GS and floors and guild donated decos can be picked up to a guild leader one time and moved in personal cargo (bound.) Or a means for old server guild ship & deco's & toons to actually be batched "migrated in place" to the megaserver overnight so be it ....

Edited July 6, 2017 by IntegrationArch

[DWho]

All things equal, many would prefer a new mega server *now* using the existing 1 min xfer process at 90 cc especially if we know it would be the best place for PvP/RP/PvE/GSF/crafting--selling/NiM Ops for many time zones. Money is easy to make in a large guild, you just crank it out.

 

But a sweet and busy new megaserver with no lag would be extreamly timely so our populations (GF'S/PvE/PvP/FPs/NiMs/Conquest/Active Guild toons concurrently online) don't fall below what makes sense for players and BW after back to school drop. If no BW action, more players will unsub and get established in newer systems and may be enticed by Battlefront II and other games.

 

Howevever in fall, if SWTOR Dev's sort out the fancy seamless refund of GS and floors and guild donated decos can be picked up to a guild leader one time and moved in personal cargo (bound.) Or a means for old server guild ship & deco's & toons to actually be batched "migrated in place" to the megaserver overnight so be it ....

 

The issue is that all of these people who want to transfer to a megaserver "now" are not consolidating population as it is. Why would Bioware set up a new "mega-server" for people to transfer to if they are not going to do it. The existing servers can handle much higher populations than they currently have yet no one is transferring. Creating a new "mega-server" and allowing people to transfer to it would only dilute the population further. They have recently upgraded the servers so there is little additional benefit to be gained from a new mega-server.

[BilaDAD]

What about people that do not PVP, or do Flash-points, ,, i like to be able to see people play , listen to chat, respond to questions, help some players out. this is a social game.

[Yujinia]

A cross server auction house and cross server party search might help people on smaller servers.