is it time for one US Megaserver ?

[fushnchips]

Bring all players together just like ESO is since both servers are in the same data center.

[MadDutchman]

Server merges are... troublesome... to put it mildly.

 

Name conflicts being a big one for a lot of people. Also means you effectively "lose" character slots unless they double the amount you currently have (fat chance of that)

 

The population of both SS and SF are perfectly healthy as it is, there is no reason to add additional problems for what margin improvement there might be in queue times.

[BRKMSN]

Galactic seasons already brings players together. Server Merges are a last resort. I'd rather they relocate one than combine the two.

[Pricia]

I really hope not. I already had to rename some of my characters when I came back to the game and I lost names I'd been using in every MMO for over 20 years.

 

And SF's population is just fine to me. I have no desire to have to compete with more people for mobs/heroics (shared tagging is nice but it's not perfect).

[illgot]

I'm on SS and I already know I'm losing all my names. They will merge the smallest into the largest which means I'll be renaming all 40 of my characters.

 

Having gone through that already, honestly I may just quit over having to rethink that many names again.

Edited April 11, 2022 by illgot

[xordevoreaux]

When I first heard of the previous server merge, I put placeholder toons on all 17 servers for the top 3 names I wanted to preserve. I only lost one name on one consolidated server (Satele Shan) and the person with that name is level 70, has been level 70 since the merge, and probably will never play again, and I'll never have the name on that server.

 

Too late now for existing characters that you want to preserve a name on, but best thing to do going forward is try to love having two names.

 

Instead of naming your character:

Jimmy

 

Name your character with a space:

Jimmy Bob

 

And you've just reduced the chance the name will be taken.

Not fun, necessarily, but works.

Edited April 11, 2022 by xordevoreaux

[xordevoreaux]

They will merge the smallest into the largest which means I'll be renaming all 40 of my characters.

That logic does not even begin to address how names are preserved in a merge.

And all 40? Seriously? Chances of that are slim.

 

Character Names

 

In most cases, nothing will happen to your character name. Names will only be impacted when there are two of the exact same name on the new United Forces server at which point a governing system determines which character has priority:

 

Premium players (Subscribers) will have priority over Free-to-Play and Preferred Status players.

Highly played characters will have priority over characters with less play time.

 

To proactively offset unnecessary challenges around character names, we are initiating a process of removing names from long inactive accounts. Any character that has not logged in for 90-days or more which has not progressed beyond level 10 will be flagged to rename their character.

 

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20171002

Edited April 11, 2022 by xordevoreaux

[BRKMSN]

Satele Shan is my main server. I've played on dying and dead servers in the past and SS is nowhere close to that state. There is no reason to be considering a merger at this time. The answer to the OP's question is: No. It is not time.

[xordevoreaux]

Satele Shan is my main server. I've played on dying and dead servers in the past and SS is nowhere close to that state. There is no reason to be considering a merger at this time. The answer to the OP's question is: No. It is not time.

 

Exactly. As long as I'm still having to stand in line 6 players deep to click on a blue quest object, we don't need a merge.

[Syal]

or... reroll 6.2 to see players coming back ?

[Ruvalie]

Please no. I recently remade a bunch of my old characters from Star Forge on Satele Shan so that I could replay and record their class story. Merging would force me to do it on the EU servers which would probably mean worse performance. Bioware shouldn't merge anything unless they first make all content in the game replayable.

[joshuadyal]

No, it absolutely is not that time. Why would you even ask? What would prompt you to even think that this was a thing that makes sense right now?

[HaoZhao]

No.

 

They said we only get two combat styles because the servers choke on lag trying to store all of the data. Logically, it follows that merging the servers would significantly increase that server lag because you would have one server managing the data for both old servers, combined.

[Talcu]

I'd be for exactly the opposite, which is more servers to more closely serve the right regions where people live and to distribute the traffic load. That'd perhaps cost more money than is in the cards, however.

 

The lag and quality of service will be worse if there is only one server for the whole country. A single point of failure. The downsides with that plan seem to be more than any upside.

 

I've been happy with Star Forge because that one is where I live closest to, but as it is- there are some bad days on occasion where I can't play because the latency is too great. The whole game freezes and I have to bring up task manager if the timeout or disconnect is bad enough on my end.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Talcu

[Exly]

A server merger would make sense, but why would they need a megaserver to do that? A medium sized server would probably be more than big enough to handle this game's current population.

[SteveTheCynic]

Bring all players together just like ESO is since both servers are in the same data center.

But it wouldn't bring all the players together. I play on a non-US server, and a US-only megaserver wouldn't affect me in the slightest.

[JediQuaker]

Two problems:

Hardware - there may (currently) be hardware performance limitations that would cause problems with too large a server.

If the above is relevant, than it might be necessary to split the server if the population was to grow too large.

[__andrea__]

Satele Shan is my main server. I've played on dying and dead servers in the past and SS is nowhere close to that state. There is no reason to be considering a merger at this time. The answer to the OP's question is: No. It is not time.

 

SAME HERE!! No. Leave things alone.

[jimmorrisson]

move Satele Shan to West Coast USA then rename Harbinger

[illgot]

Star Forge has around 2-3 times the population of Satele Shan. SS is lucky to have more than one active fleet while SF has 3-4. SF also stays active longer. It is a bit busier on SS for life day but we still have issues with population.

With transfers being 50% I don't think it matters what any of us want. I think mergers are already being planned.

Edited December 23, 2022 by illgot

[Setta]

1 hour ago, illgot said:

Star Forge has around 2-3 times the population of Satele Shan. SS is lucky to have more than one active fleet while SF has 3-4. SF also stays active longer. It is a bit busier on SS for life day but we still have issues with population.

With transfers being 50% I don't think it matters what any of us want. I think mergers are already being planned.

As someone who just wasted several thousand CC, taking a number of characters from SS to SF I'd be a little peeved if I find out a month or two from now, servers are just going to merge.  I'd imagine this won't happen for a while still. 

[DarthCasus]

Not to sound rude, but if you want mega-servers, go play a game with them. I don't want them here.

[illgot]

19 minutes ago, DarthCasus said:

Not to sound rude, but if you want mega-servers, go play a game with them. I don't want them here.

who cares what you or I want?

What's better for the game in general, one server, The Leviathan, always being vacant of players and two servers, Satele Shan and Tulak Horde, only having a decent (not healthy) population during peak hours, or one mega server/merged servers where group content is always available and the GTN is constantly stocked with items.

What you or I want is meaningless when it comes to what is better for this game. And I can already tell you that having numerous dead servers where people can't find group content is not healthy for this games population.

Edited December 23, 2022 by illgot

[DarthCasus]

9 minutes ago, illgot said:

who cares what you or I want?

What's better for the game in general, one server, The Leviathan, always being vacant of players and two servers, Satele Shan and Tulak Horde, only having a decent (not healthy) population during peak hours, or one mega server/merged servers where group content is always available and the GTN is constantly stocked with items.

What you or I want is meaningless when it comes to what is better for this game. And I can already tell you that having numerous dead servers where people can't find group content is not healthy for this games population.

If it happens, it happens. Until then, I'll gladly make it known that I'm not for it. If Bioware deems it necessary, they'll do it. Considering the nature of the forums and that this isn't a feedback thread posted by BW themselves, it seems that this thread was created for us to toss in our input, not advise Bioware on what should or should not be done, so I think my thoughts are quite welcome here at the very least. 

[illgot]

11 minutes ago, DarthCasus said:

If it happens, it happens. Until then, I'll gladly make it known that I'm not for it. If Bioware deems it necessary, they'll do it. Considering the nature of the forums and that this isn't a feedback thread posted by BW themselves, it seems that this thread was created for us to toss in our input, not advise Bioware on what should or should not be done, so I think my thoughts are quite welcome here at the very least. 

There is a 50% discount on server transfers so I think we can almost guarantee Bioware has set up plans for a server merge. I wasn't around for every server merge but the ones I experienced had server transfer discounts preceding a merger.

I just find it odd that people would vote against a change that would obviously improve the game by giving all players increased group content in an MMO.

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by illgot