Hey everyone,

 

To clarify a bit more about this decision. We did previously ask what folks on the forums would like to do as an APAC solution and some, but not all, offered up the solution of merging all APAC into one. The other option on the table was to merge APAC into the NA servers. When we discussed the options internally we looked to address everyone’s primary issues with APAC, low populations were creating a less than optimal game experience.

 

We went and looked at what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the population problems. Even with that solution you would still see long queue times for things like Warzones and Group Finder. It was because of this that we decided that moving APAC into the NA servers was the best option.

 

One thing to note is that there is no catchall solution here. If we move APAC to NA some folks will see increased latency, but they will have healthy server populations and can remain on their chosen server types. If we merge everyone into one APAC server, latency will remain in place but the current population issues will exist and players will lose their preferred server type. Leaving things as they are leaves all of the current issues in place without a solution at all. This is one of the reasons getting the plan out to you folks took so long, we had to think long and hard about all of the implications of our decision.

 

-eric

Hello Eric.

Couple of points, both relating to communication.

Firstly, while you may have raised this in the forums, I'm sure you know that not all customers participate in the forums. For example, this is the first time I've posted since I had an issue back at the APAC launch. So by only only asking for opinions on the forums would not have reached everyone playing on the APAC servers and would have not been able to find out their preferred option. Therefore, your claim that transfers to US servers was the preferred option of your APAC customers is not on solid ground. I occasionally read the forums and never saw the survey.

Secondly, you haven't actually informed your APAC customers of this decision, except via a forum post. I haven't received a email informing me of the change; you haven't put a notice on the launch screen. Given that you are significantly altering the service you are providing and that your subscribing customers pay in advance for that service, I believe that you should be informing them as soon as possible so they can make an informed decision about continuing to subscribe.

As for my personal view on this announcement: I've really enjoyed playing SW:ToR for the past year. It's helped me get through some tough times. One of the nice things was that my ping times were not 200-400 ms behind the majority of players, like it is in WoW. In WoW, the extra lag does affect performance, which affects not just myself but those of my group, in both PvP and PvE play. I haven't played SW:ToR on the US servers, but if the effect of the additional lag is the same as it is in WoW, then I will have to seriously reconsider my continued subscription. I don't want to be a drag on my team so I'm not sure I'll be able to continue playing in groups, which leads me to consider if it is worth continuing my subscription.

Why would they reverse their decision? 300 people not happy about a little lag increase and losing their precious in game names won't make eaware care at all, apac servers aren't profitable to them.

The people unsubbing won't worry the company. They've shown before they don't care for Asia pacific.

The main peeve I have is losing all my Legacy levels and having to start them over again. Legacy does not transfer, at least it didn't when we transferred over to the Oceanic servers once they went live.

So it's not just the lag increase.

The main peeve I have is losing all my Legacy levels and having to start them over again. Legacy does not transfer, at least it didn't when we transferred over to the Oceanic servers once they went live.

 

So it's not just the lag increase.

Sure that will be annoying but it's not game breaking or crucial to even playing.

The main peeve I have is losing all my Legacy levels and having to start them over again. Legacy does not transfer, at least it didn't when we transferred over to the Oceanic servers once they went live.

 

So it's not just the lag increase.

What?? my legacy levels got transferred over no problems as long it was the higher of the 2.

The main peeve I have is losing all my Legacy levels and having to start them over again. Legacy does not transfer, at least it didn't when we transferred over to the Oceanic servers once they went live.

 

So it's not just the lag increase.

The legacy system will transfer with a merge no doubt about it.

Hello Eric.

 

Couple of points, both relating to communication.

Firstly, while you may have raised this in the forums, I'm sure you know that not all customers participate in the forums. For example, this is the first time I've posted since I had an issue back at the APAC launch. So by only only asking for opinions on the forums would not have reached everyone playing on the APAC servers and would have not been able to find out their preferred option. Therefore, your claim that transfers to US servers was the preferred option of your APAC customers is not on solid ground. I occasionally read the forums and never saw the survey.

 

Secondly, you haven't actually informed your APAC customers of this decision, except via a forum post. I haven't received a email informing me of the change; you haven't put a notice on the launch screen. Given that you are significantly altering the service you are providing and that your subscribing customers pay in advance for that service, I believe that you should be informing them as soon as possible so they can make an informed decision about continuing to subscribe.

 

As for my personal view on this announcement: I've really enjoyed playing SW:ToR for the past year. It's helped me get through some tough times. One of the nice things was that my ping times were not 200-400 ms behind the majority of players, like it is in WoW. In WoW, the extra lag does affect performance, which affects not just myself but those of my group, in both PvP and PvE play. I haven't played SW:ToR on the US servers, but if the effect of the additional lag is the same as it is in WoW, then I will have to seriously reconsider my continued subscription. I don't want to be a drag on my team so I'm not sure I'll be able to continue playing in groups, which leads me to consider if it is worth continuing my subscription.

good point dude

I have 3 50s on gav. That place is very *********** quiet/dead.

Couldn't be happier along with some of my mates who share my opinion.

Then, no offense to you, but that was your and your friends view, then you should have rerolled on a different server with a bigger population.

But never mind... what's done is done. I'm sick of this arguing about this and just accepting fate, sad and disappointing as it maybe. Oh well... nice to have played this game anyway.

Then, no offense to you, but that was your and your friends view, then you should have rerolled on a different server with a bigger population.

 

But never mind... what's done is done. I'm sick of this arguing about this and just accepting fate, sad and disappointing as it maybe. Oh well... nice to have played this game anyway.

Not to say this game isn't fun but I'm happy with the characters I've leveled already.

And seeing as there are no paid char transfers I can't move them to a populated server.

The thought of re-rolling another character is not appealing to me in the slightest way.

Sure a merge between apac servers might be okay but let's face it, the decision has been made.

I highly doubt all the crying and whinging and petitions will change anything.

The Aussie servers are just not worth being kept on to eaware.

You're the first GD person that I know of is against it, and im sure there's others but sorry 10 people out of 50 isnt that much lol

Times the so-called "10 people" by ten and you'd have right number (or round about 100 at least), not to mention the amount of people talking about it on the independent Gav Daragon forum. Since you've resorted to play ground bullying with the last bit of your comment, it's no point in defending my opinion if you're just going to make fun of it.

This will be my last post/reply on this topic and I'm going to leave it there.

I had no problems with Gav Daragon's population. I liked farming Black Hole dailies without my rotation being interrupted. I had plenty of things to do and I play up to 40 hours a week. I would've accepted an APAC superserver not a US transfer. If the transfer is going ahead anyways can I pick which one I go to?

No you can't. Apparently it's what YOU wanted though. Apparently it's what we ALL wanted. Read what Musco said. I can't believe they won't even come out and just be STRAIGHT with us. They have the gall to tell us this is what we want and what we asked for. Why bother spending months asking us for "Our feedback" when all they did was ignore it anyway.

If you had to compile a list of 5 possible options according to the people they have chosen the very bottom of that list.

They need to give us some leeway to transfer to our server of choice.

I do not want to go to Bastion, i need to go to harbinger so i can send my 1.5mil white saber crystals to my new main there

Why bother spending months asking us for "Our feedback" when all they did was ignore it anyway.

#muurriccaannn

They need to give us some leeway to transfer to our server of choice.

 

I do not want to go to Bastion, i need to go to harbinger so i can send my 1.5mil white saber crystals to my new main there

ya, i know how u feel,

this game's pvper die quickly,

pve server is more stable and larger,

but if APAC can have a choice,

then ALL US servers should give that choice TOO,

a lot of us want to go PVE server, dont wanna to stay in pvp ****.

BTW buddy Dalborra had like 80 people on the pub fleet on a monday night at "primetime" and the imp fleet wouldnt of been much better which..sorry to burst your bubble is a dying server. stop living in denial the APAC servers are dead/dying and there's not anything you, me or any other apac player can do about it. GG

Really. Strange it had 110+ on Monday night at 730pm Sydney time, plus about another 70 in zone on Ilum when I was doing my Dailies.

Compared to when I was last on Harbinger it had 10 ppl on at the same time 3-4 months ago.

Thank god they are catering to your minority by killing the server for everyone else.

wrong, u r minority ,

u don't represent EVERYONE.

wrong, u r minority ,

u don't represent EVERYONE.

So the minority of dalborra are the people losing their ping when they go to harbinger, in fact the majority of dalborra are americans and other people who would benefit from being on an american because they get better ping.

Just exactly how thick are you?

Chicken Littles? I checked my own Ping on Begeren Colony and got 150-200ms from NZ, with no one on screen, i know from experience that in warzones and ops ping is worse and if its higher than 50ms people lagg and dc... we will not be on a even playing field in warzones with those in america, and if we try to op with our already established teams im pretty sure we will all be lagging and dc-ing while fighting for example TFB or Kephess... so chicken littles? i think not...

I played on a US server for a few months before moving to gav. The ping was higher but I never noticed any impact on gameplay. At least no more lag than I've gotten on gav daragon. And of course I played wow for server years where all the servers (including APAC ones) were hosted in the US and had even higher ping. Honestly, I'm not real happy about the situation but ping is not an issue that I consider the least bit important. There are other issues I think are far more important (such as not being able to choose which server we go to). People are making a big deal about it but I think the majority of people worried about it haven't played for any substantial amount of time on a US server.

I played on a US server for a few months before moving to gav. The ping was higher but I never noticed any impact on gameplay. At least no more lag than I've gotten on gav daragon. And of course I played wow for server years where all the servers (including APAC ones) were hosted in the US and had even higher ping. Honestly, I'm not real happy about the situation but ping is not an issue that I consider the least bit important. There are other issues I think are far more important (such as not being able to choose which server we go to). People are making a big deal about it but I think the majority of people worried about it haven't played for any substantial amount of time on a US server.

It won't be the same as WoW's Oceanic servers because at least in those everyone was in the same boat. Competing in PvP especially will at the very least be a total drag for APAC players on NA servers.

Here are some ping rates from all over the APAC region. I was actually surprised the ADSL ones were so low. Whether you decide to play or not is totally up to you - some people and some playstyles allow for more latency than others.

 

But I'm sick of people claiming the game will be "unplayable." Especially when all they have to back it up is the Chicken Littles in this thread.

Seriously you are telling people that they should be happy with a decrease in service because you find the content playable, you have obviously not played from WA, or any decent level of PVE/PvP content that requires a split second reaction, I sit at 300 ms on NA servers and even leveling there is a noticeable difference. regardless of your personal feeling you should not be coming here to tell people to put up with a lower service that no one asked for, and thats being FORCED on to us.

While the sky is not falling it is raining...

I have 3 50s on gav. That place is very *********** quiet/dead.

Couldn't be happier along with some of my mates who share my opinion.

Yep. It seems to be mostly people from dalbora complaining since you guys didn't have the population issues. Pity things are going to get messed up for you guys but it's not really avoidable. What were the other alternatives? Move 2 aussie servers and leave dal alone? Merge all 3 aussie servers together? In either situation you'd be expecting bioware to continue their apac setup for just one server which just isn't going to happen. That would never be financially viable. I honestly couldn't see any other way of fixing the population issues for the other 2 aussie servers. It sucks that you guys get moved when you're happy with your server but if the comments about solidarity with eh apac community are sincere, then you'd realise that the situation with the other apac servers simply isn't acceptable.

As one person pointed out, I just wish bioware were honest in saying it's about cost rather than player experience but that's what it boils down to. The US servers were all merged last year. It was inevitable that we'd follow. I just wish it had happened a lot sooner before our server population issues got as bad as they have.

Funny how everyone is complaining about pings now when we have put up with it for over 7-8 years with other MMOs

1- I have already re rolled on US west server and have gotten to 50 and been doing OPS since around late January this year on Harbinger server, Ping goes from 200 to 500ms and still no DC or any noticeable impact.

I mean sure our old 20 ping was nice and it was noticeable but unless your a PVP person it doesn't effect you.

2- I have already unsubbed(so please spare me the fanboy comments) not because of this issue but I am going to play Neverwinter now.

3- So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!

Not to say this game isn't fun but I'm happy with the characters I've leveled already.

And seeing as there are no paid char transfers I can't move them to a populated server.

The thought of re-rolling another character is not appealing to me in the slightest way.

Sure a merge between apac servers might be okay but let's face it, the decision has been made.

I highly doubt all the crying and whinging and petitions will change anything.

The Aussie servers are just not worth being kept on to eaware.

It is exactly this attitude that will mean that nothing will get changed! If you want to play on a server with a good ping then you need to fight for it! Not QQ others who are already doing that.

It won't be the same as WoW's Oceanic servers because at least in those everyone was in the same boat. Competing in PvP especially will at the very least be a total drag for APAC players on NA servers.

Wow had cross server pvp so people from apac servers still played against people from us servers. And my whole time playing wow was on a us server anyway despite living in australia. Personally I think cross server pvp and group finder would have been a far better solution that server mergers or transfers but that doesn't seem to have been even considered.