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

The "doom" threads are worry threads. You see them as doom threads because you want to see nothing good in them. People are actually thinking of solutions in these threads to address the pop issues, not preaching about the end of the universe. Are these solutions valid or not is a different thread entirely. But saying they're nothing but negativity-spreaders tells me something about your mindset and dislike to see any changes being even suggested.

The team has been asking for general feedback and ideas (we wouldn't have a literal suggestion forum otherwise). They're providing. You not wanting to see anything that might paint the game in a negative light even for the sake of seeking places for improvement, is on you, not them. They're criticizing the game, you're criticizing the users. The game we can change. The users we cannot. Because they can't afford to. They made this quite clear in the bad feeling podcast just last week.

There is 5 people CZ right now on SS 5pm california time, CZ is on conquest daily area.
There is 1 person (me) on Yavin, Setion X, BH at the same time as I was swapping instances. Where are the 30 players you speak of? I'd like to find them.

Not 30 tonight on Star Forge, but 15 on CZ, 10 in BH, 12 on Yavin, and 8 in Section X at about 9:30 eastern. A lot different than 1 or 2. The problem for you is either the time or the population distribution. Rumor is that SS is heavier into group content (PVP and Raiding) and the planets are emptier as a result.

To compare to previous comments about population, 5 of 6 pub classes are over 100 lvl 70s

Edit: Out of curiosity, I popped over to my toons on SS and found 8 on CZ, 11 on Yavin, 6 in BH, and 8 in Section X

So you always say you want data or it’s only opinion, so I give you a way to collect the data and all of a sudden I’m trying to “force” my world view on you? LoL, you make me laugh.

Impossible to have a civilised and neutral discussion with you because you always turn it personal when you have facts or data presented to you that might circumvent your attack.

I didn’t post the “how to collect data” to argue with anyone. All I was doing was providing a tool for people to make their own investigations. It was something that was posted on reddit and a lot of people seemed interested in the numbers and how to do it.
I figured people here might want to know because there is always this argument regarding fleet numbers representing game population and how they aren’t accurate.

That was my only intent. I’d didn’t even comment on my findings. I only put a disclaimer that it wasn’t primetime.

I don’t know why I’m being attacked about it. I think I’ve been relatively neutral and I’ve been having good two way discussions with people. I’m not taking sides, but I have been pointing out different points of view when things start to get a little too militant in either direction.

Let me say this straight, so there can be no mistaking my position.
I am not an advocate for mergers unless absolutely needed.
I don’t think they are needed at the moment, I think it would be premature.
I also think that Bioware have an opportunity to reverse some of the damage they have done and also tweak other things that don’t take a lot of resources or time to do. Things that would improve people’s enjoymant of the game.

There are also other options they can try before mergers.

I believe most people here agree we don’t want the game to die. I think we would all like the game to be a little more fun and less tedious.

Lastly, I dont want mergers for a lot of the same reasons most of the people posting here have said. I don’t want to lose my names, have to worry about decorating again, have to worry about needing to delete Alts (had to delete about 40-50 last time), have to worry about my friends list or ignore list, and lastly, having to play with people again that I moved to Star Forge to get away from.

But if they have to happen in the future, I’m a pragmatist. If it will keep the game going for a bit longer, then I’ll probably put up with all the crap that goes along with any merge, as long as they don’t move the servers to the EU. That would be the end of swtor for me.

It literally took me 40mins because I made a spread sheet and toyed around with how many lvls I could count at a time. At first I was doing one lvl at a time (that’s what took the longest) till I worked out you could do 10 lvls and then it was fast to do.
40mins is nothing when you consider I’ve sometimes wasted hours sitting there waiting for pvp pops.

When I did both the SF count and the SS count, I was queued for mid or low lvl pvp. If it had popped I would have gone in.
So I wasn’t wasting my time, if anything it gave me something to do instead of spending all my credits playing barbie dress ups and strong hold decorating.

Now that I’ve worked out the fastest way to do it and have the spread sheet, I’m sure I can do it in half the time, which is about the time it takes for pvp to pop.

I also found another use for using this method. It allows you to see how many matches are being run at the time and wether they are arena or 8 man.
This is very useful because I was able to get an idea how many people were in the queue. If no matches were being run and I was queued for 5 mins, then there obviously weren’t enough people pvping in that bracket. It stopped me having to sit there for 15-20mins to find out if pvp was likely to pop. It takes away a lot of the guess work.

So there are other practical reasons for using this. I will probably use it all the time to get an idea what’s happening before I sit around waiting.
I’m sure some people will find other uses for it. Obviously the “who” system was setup to check players, locations and numbers, etc. Not just to count how many people are on the servers. Otherwise, why even have it sort the way it does and provide all that information.

I think everyone is getting a little bent out of shape over nothing. It’s a tool to use and nothing more. All that’s happened is someone worked out it could be used to gauge player populations. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s taken 6 years for someone to think of it.
Imagine all those arguments people didn’t need to have about fleet numbers “if” we had just known this method. I’m sure there was a hell of a lot of time wasted on those. Sort of like this thread

Everything is subjective..... in the last 2 years i have played less than the last 2 months before this 2 year period. You really don't need data if you are sensible, non-biased person. It is enough to go in to the game, try the different activities, go to random places and see for yourself if before that you have been playing long enough. Not to mention a little comparison if you had any idea what was your server population before the merges and what is the merged server population now. For the server I play - DM population is lower than TRE before the merge. The merges themselves and what happened with APAC ppl is pathetic and so on, so on.

All this has been chewed, said etc....etc...it probably is pointless and futile considering EAware''s behavior towards SWTOR, but this a free forum after all, as long as somebody is subbed, they can present their satisfaction/dissatisfaction (keeping up with forum rules ofc). But obviously the studio focus is CM and new people, going by the last podcast, so ti matters little what any of us here says in the end, unless it is space barbie CM/Stronghold stuff.

The numbers are fluid sure enough...fluid going down. Have been for the last 2 years.

Doooooom!

I'm just going to jump in and ignore all of the back and forth.

Personally, as someone who doesn't do much group content anymore, I really don't care if they merge SS & SF. All of my real concerns were addressed last merge. I prefer having all of my characters on one server anyway, and if my decorations get doubled again, bonus! I'm content with the idea of adding a last name to characters who lose theirs. All I would suggest is that they further reduce the time on some quest spawns, and that they consider giving the conquest titles to more than just the top spot, maybe top 3.

Do you have any proof to back this up or is this just like your opinion? You don't speak for me. If it's just you're opinion, you probably should have stated so with a disclaimer like "following is my opinion only. I don't speak for anyone but myself. Agreement from other persons is neither implied nor assumed."

Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. The Dude abides.

Lol, I'm getting spun around with you and Kiesu responding and your avatars

I apologize if you thought I was directing towards you individually.

I also find some value in seeing numbers, but there are the people that post them and want to discuss them and people who want to get hysterical about them and want Bioware to act on them immediately. Sort of like the difference between people trying to be positive about things largely out of our control and those with their heads in the sand like nothing is wrong.

Nobody sane thinks there is a growing or even stagnant population. Bioware might act on our suggestions about how to improve the game, but banging the lid about the population declining isn't something they're going to act on. They'll act on it when their bean-counter tells them they're getting close to the cut-off point, after many expendable portions of the population have left.

I don't LIKE that, but that's the way it is.

None of what I've said is meant to say Bioware could not be doing better. I just find more value in arguing/discussing specific quality of life or content suggestions rather than finding new and exciting ways to "prove" to us and Bioware what we and Bioware already know, and especially when the assertions about the effects of changes are completely anecdotal, like the conquest changes (which lead to INCREASED participation and rewards, not decreased like some people believe beyond all doubt despite actual acknowledgment to the contrary)