Server population is dropping...

I vote mergers. With merges, we get rid of a lot of servers through combination which actually helps fix the problem for a majority of people. In most cases they'd have to merge at least 5 servers to get above standard population (somehow single digits on fleet and dk/coruscant is considered standard), but as long as they merge like servers (pve/pvp/rp/rppvp) it shouldn't be a problem for most people.

Transfers don't get rid of servers so it doesn't fix the problem and in fact causes many more problems as the populations will just decline even more on low pop and create even longer queues to play on high pop servers.

Once they've removed at least half the servers, then maybe go to paid transfers, but free transfers will cause more problems than they fix.

I was in one of the first waves of early access. Started on Sith Meditation Sphere. By Christmas the server was so dead I left for a while. Came back around 6 or 7 weeks ago to give this a second chance. By the end of the first day back I was re-rolling on Harbinger. 17 people at fleet during prime time.

It's hard to re-roll when you have a 50, several mid-30s, and multiple 20s. Not even paid server xfers available. All those useless credits and tradeskills. But more importantly the time involved and connection to your toons.

Harbinger, even with it's high population, still has the same issues as the dead servers. After 25 no one wants to do anything other than solo quests. There is no reason to. Nothing special or exciting for completing the FPs. No achievements. Regular quests give comms so why do the heroics? Looked all day thu, fri, sat for foundry and never even got half a group together. And now every moron and retard on the server is standing at the port-in point on fleet causing lag and infecting everyone coming in. I personally don't want a damn thing to do with the rakghoul plague. How about working on making multi-player content that people actually feel they NEED to do. Make comms ONLY drop from heroic quests and areas. Something. Right now this is a single player game, not an MMO.

Why pay a sub to play alone?

Give away all the free game time you want, doesn't change the fact that this game lacks all the elements that make an MMO an MMO. It's massive and online but it just isn't multi-player. Haven't seen a heroic since pre-Alderaan and half way done with Hoth on my main on my new server. The 'populated' one. Now I have to re-equip 4 pieces of my companions gear every time I zone or re-summon. Behind the scenes nerfs have made me and my companions much less effective than they already were, and Kaliyo was already bad as a tank.

It's really whatever at this point. Bioware may lead the industry with it's single player games, but they just have no clue where to even start with MMOs. (I say this, yet ME3 and DA2 were both enormous disappointments.) I think it all comes back to the human equation, though. Most people want instant gratification and to be handed everything. If they die to anything, mob or boss, it's all "it's too hard!!!!!! *sniff*." 6 or 7 years ago these same people were not even considered part of the gaming community. One more thing to thank Blizzard and the common idiot for.

I play on Harbinger all I can say is that my experience has been great. I'm around lvl 30 and I never had any problems grouping for heroics.

I play on a very low pop server in WoW...yet when I log on in the afternoon there are well over 100 level 85's in Stormwind. Lucky to see 20 on my server and it was a launch one that had to deal with wait times. It's pretty deflating.

I'd be completely for leveling my alts on Swiftsure or The Fatman (the only two servers that seem to consistently be above a light load) but thanks to Legacy there's absolutely no benefit in doing so.

...I'm also not going to pay $200 in cash to transfer all of my characters to a server with a moderately healthy population a mere four months after launch and over $200 already spent on a 6 month sub and CE.

I disagree. MERGERS ARE BAD because they take all control and freedom of choice away from the players.

I gather you never played Rift, so let's explore that as a recent case of how to do it in a modern MMO:

In Rift, they opened up free transfers (but not to very high pop servers). People moved around at their pleasure. Trion then targeted low pop servers and told players to migrate off of them by xyz date. Once xyz date passed, they locked the servers to any traffic other then to log on and transfer off. Rinse and repeat......Trion has done this incrementally and repeatedly over time as their populations moved/declined. And almost everyone who plays/played that game is fine with that approach.

The Trion approach is mature, thoughtful, and gives the players the most control over where they locate characters. I would bet that Bioware follows a similar approach once they open up server transfers.

Please give us server transfers or merges. pls pls pls. preferably merges though as i like my guild :P

You are entitled to your view, as I am entitled to disagree with it.

I disagree with your view of the game, but I wish you well in finding a game that meets your particular requirements.

All 20 servers would have 5 hour queues at prime time every day.

Not going to work.

They just need to follow the Rift Model:

Open free character transfers
Then
1) close the full servers to any transfers on
2) issue vacate notices to players still on servers with very low populations at prime time
3) close the very low population servers after the vacate notice expires (except to log in to transfer off)
4) rinse and repeat over time, as needed, (reopen closed low pop servers later on if more space is needed for the total game population).

Trion has proven the above model works with a dynamically changing population over a period of the last 9 months. No reason not to do it this way, or something very similar.

Repeating bad information doesn't make the information good. You present no evidence that 350 players combined triggers a load rating of Standard, and even if you did, you have no information whatsoever on the distribution of concurrent players among the servers rated Standard.

By making statements that are not backed by any evidence and by calling your co-players "kiddies" you only undermine your own credibility. If you have any evidence that 1.2 only resulted in a minor population increase, please share it.

"Are server merges a possible solution? Absolutely. Are character transfers a possible solution? They’re a definite solution and we’re going after that first. But all things are on the table. Our entire goal is to make sure that players are playing in the environment they want to, with the type of community and the size of population they want, and we are driving towards all of that." ~ Lead Designer Daniel Erickson

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1324496..._possible.html