Server Merge Discussion Thread

[omaan]

I have a good idea for solving rp problem! Merge all servers but leave one EU rp server and one USA rp server - profit. Let these poor rp players to sit on their dead servers since iam more than sure that many of them will transfer to mega server due to dead group content on rp servers. Eventually, i even think that with time all rp players will transfer to mega servers and will beg bioware to let them do so.

 

 

WE cant just ignore population issues because of relatively small group of players.

[Jedi_riches]

I have a good idea for solving rp problem! Merge all servers but leave one EU rp server and one USA rp server - profit. Let these poor rp players to sit on their dead servers since iam more than sure that many of them will transfer to mega server due to dead group content on rp servers. Eventually, i even think that with time all rp players will transfer to mega servers and will beg bioware to let them do so.

 

 

WE cant just ignore population issues because of relatively small group of players.

 

Actually this is is more likely to make me transfer off the mega server, I don't think I would be the only one who would do so, some people want quieter places due to ninjas and simple questing issues on a megaserver I expect mobs and quest objectives to respaw every 20 seconds, I play this game for story not to wait around for stuff to respawn only for a impatient player to jump in ahead of me I already see enough of that without adding more players to the mix.

[CaptainBlackjack]

I have a good idea for solving rp problem! Merge all servers but leave one EU rp server and one USA rp server - profit. Let these poor rp players to sit on their dead servers since iam more than sure that many of them will transfer to mega server due to dead group content on rp servers. Eventually, i even think that with time all rp players will transfer to mega servers and will beg bioware to let them do so.

 

 

WE cant just ignore population issues because of relatively small group of players.

 

Thanks for the LOL I find you comment entertaining in its complete lack of knowledge concerning RP players you clearly do not get what it means and prefer to make snarky comments. However I will go with your plan, you and all the General Chat trolls can happily move to a Mega server and keep looking for that magic GF que. We will happily stay on our very populated and active server where respect and cooperative game play is the normal attitude.

[omaan]

Thanks for the LOL I find you comment entertaining in its complete lack of knowledge concerning RP players you clearly do not get what it means and prefer to make snarky comments. However I will go with your plan, you and all the General Chat trolls can happily move to a Mega server and keep looking for that magic GF que. We will happily stay on our very populated and active server where respect and cooperative game play is the normal attitude.

 

You mean unpopulated server where fleet has 20 players who are standing/sitting in the cantina and talking on trash topics? Current rp servers are already unpopulated, compared to other main servers (harb, tre, t3m4 etc). With mega server you guys will finally have your own server where all planets,warzones,operations are empty and everyone sitting in cantina drinking alderaanian wine and talking about bad weather on hoth good riddance for both of us.

[docbenwayddo]

You mean unpopulated server where fleet has 20 players who are standing/sitting in the cantina and talking on trash topics? Current rp servers are already unpopulated, compared to other main servers (harb, tre, t3m4 etc). With mega server you guys will finally have your own server where all planets,warzones,operations are empty and everyone sitting in cantina drinking alderaanian wine and talking about bad weather on hoth good riddance for both of us.

 

The 2nd most populated NA server and the 3rd most populated server overall, is a RP server. FYI.

[casirabit]

You mean unpopulated server where fleet has 20 players who are standing/sitting in the cantina and talking on trash topics? Current rp servers are already unpopulated, compared to other main servers (harb, tre, t3m4 etc). With mega server you guys will finally have your own server where all planets,warzones,operations are empty and everyone sitting in cantina drinking alderaanian wine and talking about bad weather on hoth good riddance for both of us.

 

I am going to guess you have no idea the second populated server, which is Ebon Hawk, is a RP server and we have no problems doing warzones, etc. You have a poor knowledge of a roleplayer as most roleplayers on Ebon Hawk do pvp, flashpoints, operations and group activities. Though most roleplayers belong to a guild and they do it with their guild and friends. We tend to roleplay in the flashpoints and operations and other group activities we do. The only time I haven't seen a lot of roleplay is the very rare occassion I do pvp. I seriously doubt I got to 300 on my command rank by not doing anything .

Edited July 7, 2017 by casirabit

[forestguard]

I am going to guess you have no idea the second populated server, which is Ebon Hawk, is a RP server and we have no problems doing warzones, etc. You have a poor knowledge of a roleplayer as most roleplayers on Ebon Hawk do pvp, flashpoints, operations and group activities. Though most roleplayers belong to a guild and they do it with their guild and friends. We tend to roleplay in the flashpoints and operations and other group activities we do. The only time I haven't seen a lot of roleplay is the very rare occassion I do pvp. I seriously doubt I got to 300 on my command rank by not doing anything .

 

Very much this.

 

Not to mention that the fleet cantina RP is a small subset of the rest of the RP community. RPers are everywhere, from the starter planets to strongholds to fleet to any planet that suits their story's needs.

[Andryah]

I have a good idea for solving rp problem! Merge all servers but leave one EU rp server and one USA rp server - profit. Let these poor rp players to sit on their dead servers since iam more than sure that many of them will transfer to mega server due to dead group content on rp servers. Eventually, i even think that with time all rp players will transfer to mega servers and will beg bioware to let them do so.

 

 

WE cant just ignore population issues because of relatively small group of players.

 

I find your lack of awareness about the popularity of RP in SWTOR to be disturbing. The second largest server in NA is in fact a long standing RP server..... Ebon Hawk. In terms of community, it is superior to the largest non-RP server... Harbinger. I've played on both and largely migrated my game play to EH some time back because Harbinger was just getting worse and worst as more people transferred in from the old PvP servers. I don't do much RP, but I very much enjoy watching others get their RP on... and I respect their space to do so.

 

Sorry pal, but it's NOT a small group of players.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Andryah

[HuaRya]

You mean unpopulated server where fleet has 20 players who are standing/sitting in the cantina and talking on trash topics? Current rp servers are already unpopulated, compared to other main servers (harb, tre, t3m4 etc). With mega server you guys will finally have your own server where all planets,warzones,operations are empty and everyone sitting in cantina drinking alderaanian wine and talking about bad weather on hoth good riddance for both of us.

 

So much this^

 

Or you make the mistake of doing a sm gf operation with some RP'ers and it becomes a fashion shoot in the snow banks of Eternity Vault. The repeated wipes on the first boss are priceless but damn if they don't all look fabulous!

 

Original raiders (may the force rest their souls) wore Rakata, Defiant, Dread Guard, Resurrected, Verpine, etc.

 

That said we are all just players of the game. RP/PVE/PVP should all be mixed together like any healthy MMO. Saying one needs special accommodations is a path to failure.....

Edited July 7, 2017 by HuaRya

[CaptainBlackjack]

So much this^

 

Or you make the mistake of doing a sm gf operation with some RP'ers and it becomes a fashion shoot in the snow banks of Eternity Vault. The repeated wipes on the first boss are priceless but damn if they don't all look fabulous!

 

Original raiders (may the force rest their souls) wore Rakata, Defiant, Dread Guard, Resurrected, Verpine, etc.

 

That said we are all just players of the game. RP/PVE/PVP should all be mixed together like any healthy MMO. Saying one needs special accommodations is a path to failure.....

 

This RP bashing has no place on this thread you 2 are not in anyway contributing to the discussion so take your troll act and move on and leave the decision making to the adults !!!

Edited July 7, 2017 by CaptainBlackjack

[mhobin]

I don't know why there is that much debate, the solution is pretty obvious.

 

Jung Ma goes to EH

Bastion goes to Harb

JC, Sahdowlands and PoP5 merge

BC stays as is

 

There is the solution you have a East and West RP server and a east and west mega server.

 

Now go play how you want.

[IntegrationArch]

I don't know why there is that much debate, the solution is pretty obvious.

 

Jung Ma goes to EH

Bastion goes to Harb

JC, Sahdowlands and PoP5 merge

BC stays as is

 

There is the solution you have a East and West RP server and a east and west mega server.

 

Now go play how you want.

 

Fewer mega servers could work especially as we have instances (PVP/RP etc) of the same server. a new feature to place the guild in a base time zone could help connect players to the guild in that zone so Ops don't start at 1 am always.

[Ratajack]

Fewer mega servers could work especially as we have instances (PVP/RP etc) of the same server. a new feature to place the guild in a base time zone could help connect players to the guild in that zone so Ops don't start at 1 am always.

 

"RP instances" simply will not work.

 

The reasons for this have been put forth numerous times in this thread alone, even if the advocates of a "megaserver" wish to ignore and dismiss those reasons.

 

How do you determine the "base time zone" in which to place the guild? Is it the guild leader's time zone, even if the majority of the guild is in another time zone? Is it the time zone for the server on which the guild currently resides, even if a large number of the members of that guild are in another time zone?

[HuaRya]

I don't know why there is that much debate, the solution is pretty obvious.

 

Jung Ma goes to EH

Bastion goes to Harb

JC, Sahdowlands and PoP5 merge

BC stays as is

.

 

This would've been an ideal change in 2015 but the population is far more depleted now. As more successful MMO's have learned (ESO) you need to leave the expectation of RP/PVP/PVE up to the guilds or instances. Let them recruit the kind of players they want.

 

If the Devs wanted to go with instances solution they could simply let the player flag themselves PVP/RP and would only be in those instances in places where they are applicable. We know from the many RP posts that having an RP only fleet hub instance is very important as are probably many of the starter worlds.

[Ratajack]

This would've been an ideal change in 2015 but the population is far more depleted now. As more successful MMO's have learned (ESO) you need to leave the expectation of RP/PVP/PVE up to the guilds or instances. Let them recruit the kind of players they want.

 

If the Devs wanted to go with instances solution they could simply let the player flag themselves PVP/RP and would only be in those instances in places where they are applicable. We know from the many RP posts that having an RP only fleet hub instance is very important as are probably many of the starter worlds.

 

 

We know from the many RP posts that having an RP SERVER is very important.

[fushnchips]

This entire thread should be locked the ideas now are repeats and more repeats of some good and bad ideas that will never happen because not one person can agree to anything.

[Osoygatitalove]

Honestly,

If you want megaservers, at least leave Ebon Hawk and The Progenitor alone. The issue with Megaservers is that you usually can't see everyone as it's limited to how many players can be on screen at once. And the RP events in this game are freaking gigantic with 50-120 people usually participating on Ebon Hawk.

 

wait what? all the RP i ever see is cantina RP on fleet, you cant say theres more than 10 people at a time.

[DarthScruffy]

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 !

 

Even if you don't LFG, guild bonuses and more bodies can eventually lead to guild stability/activity increases as "wallflowers" get off of the sidelines. So a larger population is a larger guilding pool. Harb is really dysfunctional on this front right now.

[mhobin]

This would've been an ideal change in 2015 but the population is far more depleted now.

 

The ideal change would have been cross server in 2012. Go back and watch the guild summit from 1.2, it sounds like a really cool game that I would want to play

 

.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF60542CBEE892F02

[DanNV]

We know from the many RP posts that having an RP SERVER is very important.

 

No, actually it isn't. Having an RP environment is. They are different things.

 

The ideal change would have been cross server in 2012. Go back and watch the guild summit from 1.2, it sounds like a really cool game that I would want to play

 

.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF60542CBEE892F02

 

Yeah, unfortunately, they didn't live up to even half of what they promised and some of what they did manage took years.

Edited July 7, 2017 by DanNV

[casirabit]

wait what? all the RP i ever see is cantina RP on fleet, you cant say theres more than 10 people at a time.

 

Then that's your problem you are on the fleet and not elsewhere. Not all roleplayers on Ebon Hawk stay on the fleet to RP and there is more than 10 people doing various types of roleplay. I guess it depends on where you are looking. I know for a fact my guild never roleplays on the fleet or in the cantina, we are not a fan of cantina roleplay.

[Ratajack]

No, actually it isn't. Having an RP environment is. They are different things.

 

 

To be more accurate, having a tolerant RP environment in which RP'ers do not, as a general rule, have to worry about being "trolled" and given grief is very important.

 

An "RP instance" is none of those things, while an RP server is every one of those things.

 

Thus, having an RP SERVER is very important, as has been indicated numerous times in this thread alone by more than one RP'er and even many of those that do not RP.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Ratajack

[DWho]

This entire thread should be locked the ideas now are repeats and more repeats of some good and bad ideas that will never happen because not one person can agree to anything.

 

I have to agree with this. There has been an extensive discussion of what the community wants and Bioware has taken note of it and presented their path forward in the podcast Keith had a couple weeks ago.

 

1) They have upgraded servers to handle higher population density, presumably to allow players to voluntarily move to a few servers to increase population density (population density was a concern voiced by pro-merge posters).

 

2) They have indicated that Guild assets and transfers are a primary concern (as was indicated by numerous posts in this thread) and that mergers would not happen at all unless those issues could be resolved. Fixing this issue would allow the players still "trapped" on servers they don't want to be on to move without losing their guilds or guild assets (which has been noted as a reason that some pro-merge posters are not willing to use the existing character transfer apparatus to move to more populous servers).

 

3) They are not in any hurry to force players to move if they do not want to (also a concern expressed in this thread)

 

From this I think it can be discerned that there are no forced server "mergers" planned for the near future. That any consolidation of population will be voluntary, and that they are set up to handle higher population densities if the players decide to voluntarily consolidate to a few servers.

[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.

 

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.

 

For a pug group? I'm talking about queueing up for an ops group via group finder. Two things to make sure of: they are queued for the role they are specced in and if they have the the character perk field respec so choosing the second role viability shows up as an option.

I may understand why they wouldn't for all of group finder, that's alot of activity to manage, but maybe group finder for ops only, at least then that option would have an actual use, instead of finding a replacement and telling them to queue.

I don't see how timezones are an issue, and undergeared players are not much of a problem as players who don't know how to play their class... but that's the dice you roll in a pug group whether you're on the same server or not.

I suppose lockout poses a problem, but if someone is locked out and has progressed farther than a group queueing for a replacement and is unable to match up, you still have a better possibility of finding a replacement even if a group can't match up with a lockout.

Is there no way this can be done? A server dedicated for GF and PvP where it pulls players from their respective ones to play the match or pve instance, then you leave back to the server you came from. You may not be able to add friends to your friend list or contact anyone not from your server again, but that's part of being in a random group. But at least the ops GF might actually have a chance to pop, pvp ranked would match you against all ranked players, to test your mettle against everyone, not just your server, and I'd like to see gsf pop more, even harbinger doesn't have the queue times I'd like to see, even during peak hours.

[Icykill_]

This entire thread should be locked the ideas now are repeats and more repeats of some good and bad ideas that will never happen because not one person can agree to anything.

 

I think everything that can be said, has been said... so I agree