Time to merge the US servers... again. Primetime window getting smaller and smaller.

Or they could try reverting the worst of the conquest changes

I predicted at the last mergers they would need to look at doing it again in 9 months.
I’ve also been saying since March that prime time would start shrinking in July because outside of primetime was already shrinking in February-March
I said 2 months ago that outside of primetime was nearly a ghost town

But...
I was shouted down as per usual, told to play in prime time (which I mostly was, including rolling on a EU server)
I was told APAC players didnt count so my opinion didn’t matter.
I was told primetime was great and everything was ok

But...
I said, people who play in the middle of primetime would be the last to feel it
I said people who play when I do are the “canaries in the mine” for what’s going to happen in the future
I warned this was going to happen

But...
As usual I got trolled by a certain somebody from EU. I think we all know who I mean (starts with an “O”). Telling me I should stop playing because I’m in APAC.

Lastly...
The writings been on the wall for this for 5 months, I’ve been keeping relatively neutral as to when or if mergers should happen.

I don’t think they need to be done tomorrow or next week, but Bioware need to have a plan in place and a timetable ready to do this before it goes too far. If they take too long to do it this time, like they did last time, it will be more detrimental. The plan should also allow for it to be implemented faster if populations drop faster than they forecasted for their own internal roadmap (loose term).

My concern is they won’t do anything till the next expansion because they will say they are worried about the server being overloaded for the expansion.
As much as I wish that we could have two full servers for the next expansion, I think it’s wishful thinking. They would have to do something better than they’ve done in the last 4 years to make that happen and with EAware not supporting the game, there is little hope they can get the money, talent and resources needed to pull a proverbial Pog out of the hat.

Mergers are a decisive topic and divide the community like nothing else does. Both sides are passionate and both sides make good points as to why they want them or don’t.
As a group player, I need more people, so I’m always going to be in favour of mergers when populations drop so much that it’s difficult to do group content.

But I also understand why people who don’t do group content won’t want to merge. It’s a big upheaval and can be traumatic for some. It’s for that reason I think Bioware should have just made the one server to start with. Then all of that merger angst would have been over last merge with one big pull of the bandaid. Now we will have to go through it all again and reopen a wound that had mostly healed.

It was a bad idea to move the west coast server to the east coast, but it was a worse idea to then still have 2 servers that were located in the same location, which essentially split the same population in 2. It only ever made sense to have 2 servers if they were split geographically.

If the populations of both servers keep declining at this steady rate and we have no more self inflicted Bio-blunders (ie conquest or major patch releases that are broken-massively bugged) that make a bunch of people leave in one go, then I would say they will need to merge around November-January. That’s “if” the new expansion isn’t due till this time next year (which is likely when it will be, if at all). But, “if” for some miraculous reason the expansion will be ready in Jan-February, IMO, they should hold off. If not, then I would say that should be when mergers should probably happen.

Bioware in the meantime could start making it easier to move servers with discounted transfers again, 90cc.
I might be a bit biased towards cheap transfers because I’ve wanted this for awhile since I needed to start playing in the EU to get enough peoplemto play with.
Maybe if they introduced them again, people could follow the primetimes for each server and move as needed. So depending on your time you login, you could start in the EU primetime, when it slows, move to the East coast primetime, when it slows, move to the dwindling west coast prime time (mostly SS). That way you could essentially play all day if you so chose (except west coast players who are on the wrong end of the planet’s rotation).

There are a lot of “ifs and buts” to be considered with mergers. Only Bioware know their internal road map for content release and can also see population trends. Hopefully they do have a plan in place already for mergers for when they are actually needed and they won’t wait till it’s too late and then spend 6-12 months working on a plan (like last time). IMO, that would finish burying the game for good.

It’s a chicken and egg situation or a self fulfilling prophecy.

The lack of content reduces populations, if they won’t or can’t release enough new content, then more people leave.
We end up with snow ball effect that speeds up and gets even faster when Bioware self inflict a wound (shoot themselves in both feet, ie conquest).

So you end up with two problems, low population which means group players need mergers and lack of content which continues to make more people leave.

You are partially correct, we do need more meaningful (quality) and bug free content. That would slow the population decline dramatically and hold off mergers. But it’s not the only thing they could do to bring people back or slow it down.

Freeing up or easing up on the grind would certainly help. Making the game more Alt friendly and putting some incentives in for people to do old content again. ie playing the lower pvp brackets or redoing planet story arcs or allowing people to complete the last 2 expansions in groups group play and not solo.

Tweaking-altering the conquest system a little bit more to make it Alt friendly would be the first step.
The second step (for me) would be incentives to play lowbie pvp.
The third step would be allowing planetary are missions to be redone and having incentives for them.
The Fourth step is make steps 2 and 3 have conquest incentives associated with them.
Fifth step would be to ease up on the gear grind and adjust the RNG drops so that more-better gear drops more frequently, especially at tier 4 (which is a disgrace)

There are so many things with minimal effort that Bioware could start to do that would help alleviate this player bleed, while they try and get more content out. But if they ignore the players who are giving them feed back, people will keep leaving.
Eventually they are left with only one recourse if they want group content to be playable in the game, and that would be mergers.
Bioware are their own worst enemy most of the time. They tell us what we should like and draw a line in the sand they won’t cross, even when people start leaving because of it. They continue to shoot off parts of their own body, feet, fingers, hands and arms. But I’m sure the first thing they shot off were their ears. Hopefully they haven’t gone completely blind as well and they will “see” what’s happening. (Anyone know a good eye surgeon )

I really wish Bioware would have listened “properly” to all the feed back on conquest, then we wouldn’t have seen so many people leave over it. I fear it may even be too late to get some back, even if they made conquest the way most people wanted/want it. At some point, people just lose any remaining confidence in them and say “enough is enough”.

Merging servers does nothing to address the reasons people are leaving the game or not playing as much, and would only serve to alienate more players.

Of course there were more players nine and three months ago, because...drumroll...there was NEW CONTENT released then. People showed up for Copero and the United Forces promotion. They showed up again for Nathema. They haven't stuck around because there's no new content.

Others have spoken much more knowledgeably than I on how conquest changes have harmed their guilds and made it much more difficult to meet goals for guild ship unlocks, etc.

Others have also spoken about how toxic attitudes of some players keep them away from group content, or how they prefer to only play with friends or guilds they know.

None of that will be fixed by forcing players into a merge and causing them to lose names and more strongholds.

All good points. With no easy answer because Bioware just can’t or won’t employ more people to make content making faster and better.
At some point there is a tipping scale and they need to decide how they want the game to continue on. Wether it’s merging servers and pissing of people or not merging and pissing off people.
It really is a bad situation of Biowares own making and could have been avoided many times.

Pure whinimg. Players' toxicity is responsible for that. As long as you are not changing your behaviour, you will suffer from the results.

That's very true, and it's a good point. We're in compete agreement that it's a bad situation that seems to be approaching critical mass faster and faster.

But in such a case, I, personally, would err on the side of not alienating the players who stand to lose something from a merger.

The stronghold issue, for instance. Yes, in the last merger, people kept all their strongholds. But those players are now barred from buying any new strongholds unless they deactivate enough SHs to get under the 10-SH cap. In some cases that means deleting 10 or 20 strongholds they spent money and time on, just to get ONE new one.

So that group of players is shut out of an activity they enjoy that profits the game, since many people buy the unlocks and decos with Cartel Coins. That would happen even more with another merge. If you are on Server A and you have all 8 strongholds, and you have the two basic apartments on Sever B (to give your characters of each faction a place to go to do their banking and cargo hold stuff), you've already reached the cap, and BW isn't going to refund your CC and millions of credits when you are forced to delete something to get a new SH.

Names. Names mean a lot to many players. They may have spent CCs changing their name to something they really love. Those CCs won't be refunded if there's a server merge and they lose that name.

So as much as I am sorry that the GF isn't hopping the way some players want, I don't think I should have to be inconvenienced and lose money to accommodate that, and I don't think it would be a positive thing for the player base.

Everquest II is still running since its debut in 2004 and two of its servers (Stormhold and Antonia Bayle) are merging on September 4th. That won't leave many.

Perhaps, with all the games consolidating their servers, we could merge all the MMOs onto one server and have this one big multi-verse where you can zoom through the forests and fields of Antonica on your land speeder while fighting orcs with your light saber.

Imagine a lightning duel between a sith inquisitor and a elemental-magic wielding wizard from EQ2! There we go.
Forget considerations of appropriating intellectual propery that no company would agree to or the fanboys who are popping an artery just reading this suggestion. This is doable. Yes. It's a thing. Let's do it!

PvP has been popping instantly all afternoon on Star Forge.

I don't see the point of this thread at all. I feel like PvP is the fastest it's been in many years.

Move Satele Shan to the West Coast then rename Harbinger
Then rename Star Forge to Ebon Hawk

That way everyone knows what kind of server they are on.