Population Decline

Before they lowered the fleet instance cap, there was usually 1-2 instances, now I usually see 4. So they're just spread out more.

As for the higher fp queue time, it really depends on luck and when you queue. I've got good wait times even as dps, instant as a healer, but there was one time recently where we had a tank and two dps, and it took a good 15 min before the queue popped. With a tank in queue! But that's really unusual.

It's not all about the role ratio and overall population either. Fact is, right now a lot of people are really done with the current flashpoints. For the first couple of weeks, everyone was running them constantly so the could get gear drops and even elite coms were useful. By now, most people have graduated past the need to get the gear from flashponts or elite coms, so we are just queueing for the 3 FP weekly to get our ultimate coms.

I think it is now Summer time. Kids are out of school, people are taking vacations, and even more are spending more time outside in the yard or by the pool. Even though games are fun, they are seldom a substitute for a real life. I find most games tend to decline during the summer months and then increase again in the fall. I myself have cut back from the 15 hours a week I had been playing to just 4 or 5 when I am actually inside in the evening hours and there is nothing on the TV. I wouldn't read too much into it.

There is a noticeable amount of people gone from the servers. But it's not drastic. People tend to sit around less during the Summer anyways.

There may be some SWTOR fatigue going on, especially after 2.1. That sat wrong with a lot of people. It kind of annoyed me as well. Also, the new content coming out is a bit boring. Nothing exciting in the near future on the horizon. At least nothing that they have come out with publicly.

it also could be people are tired of the game, sorry. Running the sames Ops, FP's every day gets old. Please don't tell me to roll another alt, no thanks.

Mmm...

It would occur to me that using the team finder as a metric of server health to be flawed, for instance the longer it took you as DPS to get a group, may actually be because there are so many people on and thus so many DPS players that you just can't get a group anytime soon. Conversely the server is so empty, that the few healers and tanks needed dps results with DPS players waiting enormous times to get a group. Thus there is no real way to tell one situation from the other.

I personally do not think there is a server population crisis, but perhaps that most players are 55 gear grinding instead and thus you don't see much action elsewhere, so you could call for a new player or low level alt issue...

Sue

It also depends when you log in. At peak times on my server has increased.

A large problem is due to the seperation of lvl 50 and 55 content.

Where WZs/FPs used to pop faster due to high pop, none of the F2P are going to queue for the lvl 55 content

Based on my obseravations, I would agree with this assessment.

As for tanks/healers queing for random pugs.... why would they...if they have an active list of friends and guild mates that they know to play the game with?

These two factors combine to make for longer queue times these days IMO. It's not population drop, it's a change in player preferences. So PUGs suffer.... comes with the territory as far as I am concerned. Make friends and/or joing a good active guild. Adapt.

Yeah, in the majority of games I've played -- tanks and healers are always harder to find than DPS. I've always played a healer, and been in high demand. Since I don't enjoy doing 5+ FPs every day, especially the same 4 over and over again, I only go with guildies to help them shorten the queue time.

In our guild, we even purposely split up "groups" of us raiders/officers, so each DPS can be paired with at least a tank or healer. I'm even leveling a tank solely to help others in the guild with FPs.

Have you considered leaving the game altogether, then? I'm saying this in all seriousness. This is not a "Get out if you don't like it" rant at all. You have my utmost respect for persevering, I've just noticed this sentiment a lot and don't quite understand it. In general terms, i.e.: I'm not picking on you personally, a "Jaded Player" is not so fun to have around because they become very impatient to rush ahead. So you encounter the "Press the spacebar!" kind of behavior.

It's not that I don't understand being frustrated by the game. My pet peeve is when I have to kill a bunch of Bad Guys(tm) on the way in to an objective, then achieve the objective, and half the time I have to re-kill the exact same re-spawned Bad Guys(tm) on the way out! That seems inefficient to me and I have chalked it up to another incident of somewhat poor game design, but still: I feel the edges of boredom creeping in when that happens.

And I also know that some of you level SO FAST that it is just about impossible to keep up with you and also impossible for you to maintain enthusiasm for a game you have conquered so quickly. It's just that from my perspective as someone who plods along slowly, this game is not my new best friend. When the time comes that I am bored with it, I will drop it in a heartbeat.

Now if only I could transfer my credits and coins to the next game....