Server mergers need to happen ASAP.

Mythbusting

1. Server Mergers = PR disaster, or means game will be losing more subscriptions, or xyz unreasonable myth.
- Sorry to break the heavy realization. If servers require a merger it is simply due to the fact that there are more servers needed than people playing. Period! Server mergers don't create lost subs, lost subs create mergers. I'm not sure why so many people find this hard to understand. Basic math: more subs = more need for multiple servers. Less subs = less need for multiple servers.

2. You are not playing during peak time, or "I log on and every server is showing as heavy", or standard is "normal" server population.
- If someone feels the game is lifeless to them because they are playing on a server with a low population, due to whatever reason, the fact that you play on a "heavy" server has no bearing. The fact that you perceive standard pop to be "normal" has no bearing. Your perspective on your server of which feels like a lively MMO to YOU has NO BEARING.

The longer it takes to merge the population, the faster subs will bleed.

whats your point? i complained about queues in the beginning when i rolled on an early access server that subsequently became full. after this, I FOLLOWED THE ADVICE OF THE BIOWARE STICKY, in the vague hope that they were managing their population with some degree of competence.

Empire people should realize that the problem is twice as rough on the republic side.

I played for six hours once. I did not see a single player or anyone chat except to say "LFG" with no answer.

Server said standard.

Standard should be low. Heavy should be light. Very heavy should be standard. To many servers and to few players allowed per server. That is the problem. Seriously. Six hours!!! Might as well have played a mass effect-game with a monthly fee.

Don't get me wrong. I love this game and have no plans of leaving. I just wish it was packed more than it is.

I am Protocol Droid K8-E3 of Human-Cyborg Relations...

I have received your transmission regarding character transfer to another server

Unfortunately your request cannot be process due to that character transfer in not available and we cannot support that.
That request is not yet feature and we cannot tell you the time frame for the matter.

We advise you if you create another character choose less populated server for you to play in smooth way.

Please do not hesitate to contact us again if there is anything further we can help you with.

Galactic Support is our specialty...
Sincerely,

Fair enough they responded to my ticket, fair enough they arnt supporting character transfers, which i fully expected the answer to be, but advising me to create another character and choose a less populated server?? im confused i thought i was already on a less populated server and that was the problem.

Couple of pages late... but oh well, I wanna respond to this.

You're complaining about a lack of people on Ilum, when the majority of people in this game are closer to level 20-30. My server is Heavy or Full every time I log in (regardless of the time of day), but I have yet to see more than 50 people on Ilum at once (Empire side). Planets like Alderaan and Taris have a couple hundred people though. There's almost always a couple hundred people at the fleet as well.

On the flip side of that, I rolled a Trooper alt (shorty after deleted it) and leveled him up to level 10 or so and went to the fleet. There were ~30 people on the Smug/Trooper strarting planet, and only about 50 at the fleet during peek hours.

Granted, I understand that all servers are different. But you've got to consider the fact that you leveled faster than 80% of this games playerbase. That means you'll just need to wait until others catch you, or you find a guild with similar interests.

Mythbusting Pt2

3. Telling people how to spend their playtime, or that they need to roll a new toon on another server, or convincing the the person that they are making up their perception, or they need to log in at xyz time of day
-Unless you are paying for that person's subscription...none of the above have any bearings.

Without bearings, the wheels don't move as smooth.

ROFL! How the hell can they recommend a less populated server?

To input some extra information:

- 'standard' server on SWTOR means 1000-2100 players online, from 1250 onwards can be considered a high population server in other MMO's

- a TOR server with 'heavy' population status, is like 2100+ players and alrdy surpasses as good as all servers in other MMO's, except maybe the top populated WoW servers (a full Rift server with queue is 2000 players ingame, no more)

- SWTOR is large as world. You might not suspect it, but in total worldsize TOR is larger than WoW or LotrO, and many many times larger than Rift or Aion. Having 1000 people in a world as small as Rift will feel differently than having 2500 people in a world that's 10 times as large as Rift. The bigger world will feel emptier even if there are a lot more players playing in it, because they'll be more spread out over a vastly larger territory.

That pretty much has to do with faction imbalance rather server population. On Tarro Blood peak hours there are like 60-80 people on the republic fleet; the Imp side has 170-210. I can easily find groups when I play on my imp chars, but it takes quite a bit longer on my republic.

Ilum was just one example. My server is dead(ish) even when I'm playing alts.

Since the holidays were over there have been only a handful of new 50's, that's in over 2 weeks. Most of the 50's are still the same people who rushed it during the holidays. So lvl 50 is not going to get a massive increase in population anytime soon on my server, whereas in some other servers it's vibrant. My guess is that most people on my server are rerolling server or simply quitting the game when they reach 30+ levels due there being hardly no one else to play with.