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Server Merge Discussion Thread


EricMusco

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Hey folks,

 

We recently removed a thread related to the topic of server merges. This thread was removed because of numerous rule violations contained within it. Since we know this conversation is important to you, I am remaking this as the centralized thread for that discussion. Although we don't have anything to discuss right now on this topic, we want to continue to get your feedback and thoughts on it. Please keep it coming!

 

A few rule reminders:

  • Discussion of moderation is not permitted.
  • Please remain respectful of other forum users. Disagreement and discussion is fine, personal attacks are not.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

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Thank you Eric!

 

I am all for mergers because I believe keeping dead servers active does more harm than good. Players who return to, or roll on, those dead servers, are faced with the illusion that SWTOR is a dead game...which it is not.

 

There are a few primary concerns:

• Guild assets

• RP servers

• Names

 

Guild assets should be handled in advance of any merger by Bioware, on a case by case basic. Guild ships and guild strongholds would need to be unlocked on a new server and special help in reforming guilds should happen. Any merger needs to be as smooth as possible and guilds are one of the most important assets of this game.

 

RP server either need to continue to exist, or they need to have special accommodations in a merged scenario.

 

Name purge prior to any transfers and moving high population servers to the lower pop ones is what I would expect. That doesn't negate naming issues, but it does help.

 

One additional thing I would like, with or without a merger, is an expansion of the /ignore list. The current limit is too low and I believe it needs to be higher.

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Make 2 mega servers. One East coast, and one West coast. Funnel all existing north American servers into those two. Use the additional then free servers to help support the main two. Boom problem solved.

 

Would especially be ideal for those newer or returning players who are expecting a Harbinger level of activity but have found themselves on servers like Jung Ma.

 

Weren't the servers in North America moved to the same physical location?

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Thank you Eric!

 

I am all for mergers because I believe keeping dead servers active does more harm than good. Players who return to, or roll on, those dead servers, are faced with the illusion that SWTOR is a dead game...which it is not.

 

There are a few primary concerns:

• Guild assets

• RP servers

• Names

 

Guild assets should be handled in advance of any merger by Bioware, on a case by case basic. Guild ships and guild strongholds would need to be unlocked on a new server and special help in reforming guilds should happen. Any merger needs to be as smooth as possible and guilds are one of the most important assets of this game.

 

RP server either need to continue to exist, or they need to have special accommodations in a merged scenario.

 

Name purge prior to any transfers and moving high population servers to the lower pop ones is what I would expect. That doesn't negate naming issues, but it does help.

 

One additional thing I would like, with or without a merger, is an expansion of the /ignore list. The current limit is too low and I believe it needs to be higher.

 

And RP accommodations does not mean a separate instance like pvp. That will not work as people will get on that instance and harass and grief rp.

 

Would just prefer that a rp server like Ebon Hawk stay just the way it is and not be merged with a server, say like, Harbinger.

 

And if you merged servers this time be sure the assets are done better than they were or better yet transfer guilds in tact with all their assets without having to jump through hoops to get the guild restarted and all the assets back.

Edited by casirabit
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Make 2 mega servers. One East coast, and one West coast. Funnel all existing north American servers into those two. Use the additional then free servers to help support the main two. Boom problem solved.

 

that'll really help me in Scotland, thanks

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And RP accommodations does not mean a separate instance like pvp. That will not work as people will get on that instance and harass and grief rp.

Correct Casi. If they did make it instanced, I would hope they would ask the RP community for their input on how to minimize the chance of griefing. You guys know best...they should ask RPers.

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Hey folks,

 

We recently removed a thread related to the topic of server merges. This thread was removed because of numerous rule violations contained within it. Since we know this conversation is important to you, I am remaking this as the centralized thread for that discussion. Although we don't have anything to discuss right now on this topic, we want to continue to get your feedback and thoughts on it. Please keep it coming!

 

A few rule reminders:

  • Discussion of moderation is not permitted.
  • Please remain respectful of other forum users. Disagreement and discussion is fine, personal attacks are not.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Please ensure that no one will be negatively impacted by server merges by ensuring that any and all issues surrounding server merges have been resolved prior to considering server merges.

 

As it stands now, every player has the option to play on a server with a population that matches their population/community desires. There is no reason to negatively impact multitudes of players because some players refuse to avail themselves of any of the options they already have to play on a server with a population more to their liking.

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Merge all EU Servers, all US East Coast Servers and all EU West Coast servers to have three megaservers.

For the EU Megaserver, add one PVE and one PVP instance for each language (in the same way you have PVP and PVE instances on each server now). That would be best for the whole game.

On a side note, perhaps you could also add a Roleplay instance on each server where the roleplayers can converge and roleplay without all the lollers and trollers to disturb their immersion.

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Correct Casi. If they did make it instanced, I would hope they would ask the RP community for their input on how to minimize the chance of griefing. You guys know best...they should ask RPers.

 

Best way to preserve RP is just don't merge.

 

Merge is horrible once is enough.

 

XServer Queues instead.

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Best way to preserve RP is just don't merge.

 

Merge is horrible once is enough.

 

XServer Queues instead.

We've had TWO mergers, not one. And I agree...I'd prefer to see the RP servers left as they are.

 

XServer queues though just aren't something I agree with (at this point...too late imo). They'd be better off merging servers and developing content to attract and retain players.

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I'll just repost my own response to another similar thread with a couple of updates:

 

  1. Loss of character names
  2. Loss of legacy name
  3. Loss of Guild name
  4. Personal strongholds reset with no decorations
  5. All rooms locked again in personal strongholds
  6. Guild flagships reset and relocked
  7. Character limit. If someone has 40 character on 6 servers each, limit is only 52 right now for subs.
  8. Legacy storage space. If you have all tabs filled on multiple servers, what happens to all that stuff when forced to one server?
  9. PvP, PvE, RP, English, French, German language servers

 

1) I for one would welcome a forced name change in-game, Even after all this time, I am still refining my naming convention, and having the ability to do it all at once without cost would be fantastic. Further, I would rather be able to rename All my characters from the website account management page than having to log in to the game and do it one at a time.

 

2) meh, I would also be in favor of a Legacy name change, BUT, only if the requested expansion to the Ignore system was done and in effect going forward. (see REQ: Ignore (update) and BAN (implement)) here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=920385

 

3) Stickier, but also manageable. Priority should be based on guild size/activity.

 

4) annoying, but survivable. People would continue to be deco-vomiting to establish their CQ bonus, then redecorating as they saw fit. Might be a good time to look at some sort of layout & deco management options for client side that can be saved and loaded like the UI layout is.

 

5) definitely a potential issue. pre-merge, by a week or 2, there would need to be a mass Cartel Coin or in-game credit grant to equal the cost of re-establishing all strongholds.

 

6) same as above

 

7) I think it goes without saying that a expectation of a greatly expanded character list would be necessary. I'll add to this that there needs to be some refinement and expansion in the options to locate the desired character(s) in the character screen (ie, pinning, sorting by faction /class /level /etc)

 

8) again, not unreasonable to expect some long needed expansion in this area. I would actually prefer to see the existing tabs expanded to 12x12, with a single extra (7th) tab.

 

9) the PvE/PvP 'issue' has already been (mostly) addressed with their respective instances. This would only require some additional work to expand the zones that do not currently have a PvP instance configuration. RP would be just as easy by adding a 3rd (RP-PvE) and 4th (RP-PvP) instance to ALL zones. The RP chat would have it own permanent 5th slot in the chat list. The same thing can be done with a client side language selection, which would set your chats to your preference. The larger issue involved in this would be a complete redesign of the chat system, which is something that has been needed since the beginning.

 

Nothing stated here is insurmountable, and a 'mega-server' merge *should* improve the overall player experience. Keep in mind that despite story and other such things, this is a MMO, and the dynamics that entails should be the foremost consideration above all else.

Edited by Kaveat
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Although we don't have anything to discuss right now on this topic

That's crazy Eric! Servers are in a dire need of another merger! I don't know how the devs don't have anything to discuss right now about the topic, especially when Ben did say in a stream that the team would discuss it in 2017.

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That's crazy Eric! Servers are in a dire need of another merger! I don't know how the devs don't have anything to discuss right now about the topic, especially when Ben did say in a stream that the team would discuss it in 2017.

 

Still going to be 2017 for a few more months, so the expiration date on that is a ways off yet.

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Some of us don't want servers merged but the rest of you will never understand that. Just because you want to cue faster for things. Instead of merging servers why not have cross over for group finder instead. I picked my server for a reason if I wanted a high pop server I would of picked one. I shouldn't be forced to play on a high pop server.

 

There are many reason I don't want my server merged it's fine the way it is.

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Hey folks,

 

We recently removed a thread related to the topic of server merges. This thread was removed because of numerous rule violations contained within it. Since we know this conversation is important to you, I am remaking this as the centralized thread for that discussion. Although we don't have anything to discuss right now on this topic, we want to continue to get your feedback and thoughts on it. Please keep it coming!

 

A few rule reminders:

  • Discussion of moderation is not permitted.
  • Please remain respectful of other forum users. Disagreement and discussion is fine, personal attacks are not.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Server merges or cross-server warzones, flashpoints,operations,uprisings MUST BE. As a player who plays on many servers at the same time (teh,harbringer, tre and t3m4) iam confident that we should unite all servers (two mega servers for USA and one mega server for EU) . For example, playing on t3m4 i have noticed that 70% of all fights on warzones are the fights against SAME PEOPLE which means that this server has low population of people who are willing to pvp (although, warzones popping quite frequent (only 1-2 minutes of waiting) + on this server republic hardly dominates imps on warzones (reos are winning 80% of all fights), and the number of republic players twice as many as the number of empire players . On the other side, tre has much larger quantity of players playing warzones, and empire population, yet imps here are totally dominating reps. If you make cross-server warzones,ops,uprisings, fps you will solve seriouse problems lol - pvp between republic and empire will be finally balanced on tre (since t3m4 has better reps, and tre has better imps); republic players on tre will be able to run more ops,fps,uprisings (since t3m4 has large population of reps), t3m4 will have diversity in warzones fights, and empire pvp players will start to win warzones thanks to combination with tre empire players).

 

Problems? Of course language problems lol, but is it really a problem? Look at WOW, this game already has cross- server battlegrounds, pve and even zones (near main cities you can see players from different realms dueling) for a long time, and language isn't an issues since everyone has basic english skills (help west, snow/grass, mid, kite etc). So if wow don't have problems why should we have? Besides, before blizzard implemented cross-server feature they also had problems with queues for both pve and pvp, but after they did it, the number of pvp and pve activities plunged significantly (increased).

 

 

In conclusion, yes all eu servers should be:a)merged or b)at least have cross-server war zones,fps,ops,uprisings. Ignoring these two ways of fixing population/faction issues are not only unwelcomed but would continue swtor to be in stagnation

Edited by omaan
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Hey folks,

 

We recently removed a thread related to the topic of server merges. This thread was removed because of numerous rule violations contained within it. Since we know this conversation is important to you, I am remaking this as the centralized thread for that discussion. Although we don't have anything to discuss right now on this topic, we want to continue to get your feedback and thoughts on it. Please keep it coming!

 

A few rule reminders:

  • Discussion of moderation is not permitted.
  • Please remain respectful of other forum users. Disagreement and discussion is fine, personal attacks are not.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Merges and population issues have been responded to in the past from various mediums. It's no secret that this game and many servers are having population issues. When can we expect an update on "the plan"?

Edited by Savej
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I heavily disagree with merging servers, I rather see resources used to the already large servers, for example in EU most players have already moved to TRE from even German and French servers. There are a "natural" mega servers for EU already so, in reality, there is no need for a server merge.
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This is more of an issue with returning and new players ending up on dead servers than some Shadowlands guy not getting pops.

 

Once again, we have people claiming to be concerned only about people who are NOT EVEN PLAYING THIS GAME, at the expense of multitudes of those who ARE playing now, and quite possibly PAYING to play. It makes no sense to me to negatively impact multitudes of players who are currently playing (and potentially PAYING) this game NOW, on the off chance that some Tom, Dick or Harry MIGHT POSSIBLY decide to try this game at some undetermined point in the future.

 

 

New players should have a general idea about server population fairly early, even if they do not bother to do any research ahead of time or ask in general chat early. A new player should know about their chosen server's population early enough to be able to re-roll on a different server without any major problems.

 

Players who MIGHT, POSSIBLY return at some undetermined time in the future have the same option that any of those who are CURRENTLY playing (and potentially PAYING) have to play on a server with a population more to their liking.

 

Many people are also ignoring the fact that those players who do their group content with friends and guildmates will still not be providing the LFG fodder that many desire, so queue times will not likely see much improvement.

 

But, let's tick off a large portion of the game's population by forcibly merging them with other servers (with ALL the nightmares and headaches those server merges would cause) because some Tom, Dick or Harry MIGHT POSSIBLY decide to try this game at some undetermined point in the future, or because Johnny is friendless and guildless and cannot get a queue pop within 5 minutes because his "less than desirable" behavior has landed him on too many ignore lists.

 

Even if BW did manage to resolve the issues surrounding guilds and guild assets, personal assets, etc., there are still the issue related to server communities, such as the cesspool that is Harbinger.

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That's crazy Eric! Servers are in a dire need of another merger! I don't know how the devs don't have anything to discuss right now about the topic, especially when Ben did say in a stream that the team would discuss it in 2017.

 

Ben said the population issues would be re-examined early in 2017. He never said that BW would be discussing the results of that re-evaluation with us.

 

Late January or early February in 2017, if I recall correctly, BW DID extend the 90 Cc transfer sale indefinitely. That seems to coincide with the early in 2017 time frame for BW's re-examination of population issues.

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Merge all EU Servers, all US East Coast Servers and all EU West Coast servers to have three megaservers.

For the EU Megaserver, add one PVE and one PVP instance for each language (in the same way you have PVP and PVE instances on each server now). That would be best for the whole game.

On a side note, perhaps you could also add a Roleplay instance on each server where the roleplayers can converge and roleplay without all the lollers and trollers to disturb their immersion.

 

No that will not work. Greifers and trolls will still be able to grief rp. There is no way adding a rp instance will help keep griefers off the rp instances. It will not work like a pvp instance because I think if you grief a pvp player he can just kill you on a pvp server, there is nothing stopping a troll/griefer from doing that on a rp instance.

 

The fastest way to kill roleplay is by giving it an instance like this and allowing people to troll or grief them. This happened to me before on SWG and my friends and I got fed up that we just stop playing. We don't want people to stop playing so this is not a way to handle roleplay.

Edited by casirabit
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