So everyone is having issues with server populations. Bioware/EA doesn't want to do a server merge. So how about the following?

Take a page from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and rebuild the game slightly through an expansion. We''ll call this SWTOR: Republic at War

To build a real community, redesign the Fleet so that there is ONE Fleet per side (Empire/Republic) attached to all servers on the different time zones. IE: One Empire and one Republic Fleet for East Coast, one set for West Coast, one set for Europe, etc. All in all this fixes the server population grip because the fleet contains the entirety of a time zone! It fixes the “we need to merge or transfer characters fiasco” because now everyone in a time zone has a localized place with which to meet, greet, and find a party to do stuff with!

The Fleet would be changed internally in the following way:

There will be 5 levels open to characters that are level specific. L1 is 10-19, L2 is 20-29, L3 is 30-39, L4 is 40-49 and L5 is 50. This helps to reduce the amount of people sitting in one room causing lag. Each level will have a full deck with class trainers, GTN terminals, cargo hold access, supply merchants etc. Each level will also have its level specific flashpoint terminal, this will ensure you don't have 1000 people on one deck looking for groups to do multiple flashpoints. Instead you will have a smaller number of like leveled people around looking to do the same flashpoints. Also all levels are backwards compatible so that a level 50 can always go back to a lower level for content but it is not forwards compatible so no level 10's are running around the level 50 platform.

Guilds will have access to Guild Rooms or Guild Ships that are part of the fleet. Inside each Guild Room/Ship you have a terminal granting access to all Flash Points and Operations. You will also have (if the guild purchases it) a guild bank and a GTN Terminal.

Guild Rooms/Ships can be customized internally and could have a commons room to invite out of guild players into in case of a meeting or trial recruitment.

There would be one floor/deck that is an open Cantina area. This would be one deck on the ship open to all levels to say hello. There will be the VIP members lounge on a different deck accessible only by VIP members. The Cantina will contain a leader board ranking all guilds in fleet. The rank will be based on points earned for doing flashpoints, operations and hard level flashpoints. Points could be add for world bosses or some planet content as well. Points will not be earned based on number of members in guild as this would lead to having a very small number of guilds with way to many people in each guild. Instead we will have lots of guilds with smaller numbers and if a guild can build a team that rocks it will show on the board due to point score. The cantina can also have a PVP board showing a similar rank system for PVP play.

As for access to planets we can do the following:

We have lots of empty servers due to recent character transfers so why not make use of them. Rather than hold the entire game on one server lets hold pieces of the game on various servers. If my guild an I want to run content on Hoth we can go to our ship (accessed via guild room/ship or fleet) and see what servers Hoth is running on. Place each planet on 6 servers, 2 PVP, 2 PVE, 1 RP-PVP, 1 RP-PVE. This allows players to decide if they want to do PVP that day or if they want to just run PVE content and not worry about getting stabbed in the back.

As for characters on a server. Server now will only hold your character information and progress in game. It is not the place you are stuck in anymore. This fixes the whole "I'm on a dead server with no body to play with", now your server is just the name of where your characters are being held. Regardless of what server you build on, you have access to everyone on your zone (East, West, Asia, Europe, etc).

It does create a boat load more work for Bioware as far as how to fix things, however they have not shared any ideas with the community of how to fix things so here is one idea you can put on your list!

Yes this idea has some major issues that it causes due to programming and such however since no one is really looking at “out of the box” ways of fixing things I figured I would start.

I invite everyone to comment and critique however I only ask one thing. As a community that wants this game to last and improve, let us do something that our government can’t do. Let us work together to come up with ways of making things better rather than point a blame finger!

Enjoy.

They're merging servers. It was formally announced some time ago ...

Besides, what you suggest is far more than a Cataclysm-style change. It's an entire game redesign, that would require the developers to start over from scratch. What you recommend is "out of the box." It just isn't viable for an already-developed game.

I understand that entirely, the post was to start ideas moving. Thank you for responding!

However parts are still viable and some ideas can be implemented in different ways. To attempt to remove the server isolation, take group finder and make it cross server. Allow people on different servers the ability to talk to people on other servers and group specifically with them. If blizzard can do this, bioware can do it.

This would help people who got on the "wrong server" to still group with friends for content.

Now you've stopped thinking 'outside the box.' In fact, you're doing the complete opposite. You're suggesting they copy systems from other publishers simply because "blizzard can do this."

Cross-server group finder has been suggested for this game since beta. There are reasons why it has not been implemented. Agree with them or no, there are already threads dedicated to the discussion of this feature, and absolutely no reason to discuss it anew here.

pop is not the main concern now,

as i posted b4, if u really care about it,

the only solution is to merge all servers into a mega cloud computing server,

it is logical, not physical,

so ppl can stay on their ghost town server,

no queue issue, no over-pop issue, no performance issue on fleet,

no legacy name or name need to change issue,

no need to transfer even if the game die again,

there is only ONE galaxy.

i said many times, but bw just dont have technology to do it,

and just few RD ppl here can understand it.

@Oakamp

I love the idea of putting the game on a cloud server, in all honesty that truly would solve many issues. However I agree with you the technology really isn't there yet, at least not for gaming purposes. Businesses are having enough fun trying to do the conversion with limited success. Still a fantastic direction to look in when the technology does become available!

@HeavensAgent

Yes, I made reference to adapting a system found in WOW which is not "outside the box" and yes it has been discussed a thousands times over. It was meant as a reference to an idea of removing some of the "stuck in server" limitations most games face. With the fact that SWTOR takes place in space and supposedly a futuristic genre, there has to be some feasible way to breach the constraint created by servers so that people can play with each other.

The idea of having a level on the fleet in which multiple servers are attached can be designed as an instance in which people can get together. This can be implemented without a complete tear down and redesign of the game but an expansion of what is already available using features already in play. I'm not saying the idea is perfect but it could be something look at down the road.

The idea of having a level on the fleet in which multiple servers are attached can be designed as an instance in which people can get together. This can be implemented without a complete tear down and redesign of the game but an expansion of what is already available using features already in play. I'm not saying the idea is perfect but it could be something look at down the road.