Even if they did open up 'optional' transfers. They'll still merge the origin servers to the destination servers. You'll have the option to remain on your origin server, but only for a limited of time, and new players are locked out from creating any character on the origin server. If anyone's kept track, they've done this already with the US and EU servers. And yes, some of us are on the RP server do actually RP. I enjoy it casually myself, but as others have said we also enjoy other aspects of the game. With the amount of concurrent players around. PvP has been limited to only a few pops a night, and that is quite frankly annoying, which has made me decide to not bother to logging in anymore besides the two-set nights of ops, since I still enjoy my guild's company. For RWZs, it'd be nice to have more diversity to it. Otherwise with no cross-server feature whatsoever, or any communication regarding one. It shows Bioware prefers to do their stuff locally, which means for those optional transfers to be in order.

I highly agree with all statements made here. The population on our server has always been small, but we tolerate it due to the awesome people on it. But now it's becoming an issue with the population now hemorrhaging. It's time for a merge. PvP queues die after a few losses to either faction, the group finder queue isn't fully utilised, ranked warzones aren't played and the peak time on the fleet is only around 20-30 people. With no cross-server feature in sight, or a lack of communication regarding one. It falls down to a server merge, we continue playing, because we enjoy the game, and the social aspect of it. But if things continue as they are, it'll eventually end up as a ghost town, which already feels like one at the moment. We're stranded here, due to no server-transfer feature. Migrating would simply mean starting from scratch. We'd appreciate if there's any word, or update regarding on a possible merge.

Very good post! I highly emphasise on suggestions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9. The Legacy friends option, friend their legacy, and then have the convenience of being able to contact your friends, regardless of what character they are on. Make use of Legacy more, this would exactly be like the tool that battle.net uses with its RealID, except it would be server-only. If I interpret right with regarding 'mega-servers', then this would be another great feature to have in. Of course, give players the option to opt-out, if they value their privacy. Community has always been an important aspect to an MMO to most players. I know bioware gets that, the LFG tool is a step in the right direction. But more simple tools like a better UI for channels to being able to moderate said channels, the commands are there to do the typical /kick, /moderate etc. But newcomers won't be able to get that, unless they do further reading, and it's a pain. Channels that are also easily accessed to the opposite faction ALSO helps a ton with community building, if we don't have server forums (server group forums are meh), then this I reckon is the next best thing. I'm an rp'er myself, casually, and I help organise regular server-wide rp events, having everyone already in the one place makes it a whole lot easier to communicate and organise, rather than having to log onto the opposite faction and then advertise the event again, making it a tedious task. Yes, we could use third party applications, or methods (VOIP, forums etc). But this is just a much more convenient way, and everybody spends majority of their time in-game. I'm not only speaking an RP's perspective, but there are many events I've seen that servers are doing, and they look fantastic. The Jung Ma world PvP event for example, you'd do them great service by implementing features such as cross-faction channels. Even encourage other server communities to create server-wide events such as that. Please take note, bioware! These simple-sounding features are great luxuries to help build/enhance server communities together. Again. Thank you, OP.

Is it possible that we may see our companions (preferably healers) more viable for flashpoints, or possibly even operations? Healers are rather a short on supply, and a feature like this would help a low pop server, or small casual guilds with their raids quite a bit.

Alright.

It'd be a fun mechanic, but the amount of work that would have to be involved when releasing future content would be huge mostly on the voice acting part. My sith warrior might, he's light sided and wants to the change the Empire's ruling to more just.

EDIT: wrong thread. -_- Regardless, still a great guide. Report for sticky. =)