Hey everyone,

 

I have an update for you on our long term plans for the APAC servers. Before I do that though I want to let you know up front that we still have quite a bit of work to do to make this happen so I cannot provide any timeframes for you today.

 

We know that when we asked you, the community, for your opinions on what we should do, we received quite a variety of suggested solutions. Some people wanted to be able to transfer to higher populated North American servers, some suggested merging the three existing APAC servers into one large APAC server, and then there were a host of other ideas as well. However, the one common theme from the suggestions, which we heard clearly, is that everyone wants the opportunity to play on higher populated servers. With this in mind, we have evaluated all of the options and determined that the best solution, that will offer the best long term play experience, is to merge the APAC servers with higher populated North American servers.

 

Getting to the point of being able to merge the servers is going to be a multistep process. First off we need to update our Free Character Transfer System to include the game changes that we have made recently along with the upcoming changes in Game Update 2.0 and the Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel. We will then offer Free Character Transfers to anyone currently playing on an APAC server to a North American server of the same gameplay type, specifically:

• Mastar Dar’Nala (PvP) will transfer to The Bastion (PvP)
  
• Gav Daragon (RP-PvE) will transfer to Begeren Colony (RP-PvE)
  
• Dalborra (PvE) will transfer to The Harbinger (PvE)
  

We will also need to update our server merge technology at which point we will ultimately merge each of the APAC servers into the corresponding North American servers as indicated above. We are moving as quickly as we can to make this happen, but we want to make sure this is a smooth transition, so it will take some time.

 

Why did we decide not to merge the three APAC servers into one large APAC server? We decided this for two main reasons. 1. The issue in doing this is that two play-styles (PvE, PvE-RP, or PvP) would need to sacrifice their desired play-style in order to have one server with a higher population. We feel that it is important that each player is allowed to continue to play SWTOR in their preferred play-style. Therefore, accommodating all the existing play-styles was a primary goal. By allowing you to move to a NA West server, you will be able to keep your play-style. 2. The move to North American servers better delivers on our ultimate goal of providing the best play experience, with the most possible players, long term.

 

I will continue to provide updates as soon as I have them. I know the next big question will be “when” and as soon as I have that information to release, I will do so. Thank you for your continued patience on this. I know it took longer than you would have liked but I intend to continue to give you information as soon as I can!

 

-eric

 

Welp. There goes my 13ms ping, my character names, people knowing who I am... ...

 

/cry.

thanks for killing pvp for APAC players

 

can't wait for my ping to increase by 500%

 

and there goes playing infil

well this sucks so much ***, going to be so pissed to have to play with 200+ms in a WZ, guess everyone here's in the same boat and basicly can't play melee anymore. time to find a new game if I don't atleast get to keep my names.

 

now the real question rises, is it worth paying to go to The Bastion for me where the reps rule, this will be a hard choice.

 

[edit] after going to harbringer all my names are taken, more things that suck

Edited March 25, 2013 by BattleGracefully

I'm devastated

 

All excitement for the expansion and future of this game died today.

 

Condolences APAC community and the ping we leave behind.

Welp. There goes my 13ms ping, my character names, people knowing who I am... ...

There goes my subscription.

 

To the people I play with: I've had a great time, and I wish you all the best, whether you continue on an NA server or move on to something else. Some of you I'll still talk to outside the game of course

 

I doubt I'll be around much from now on though. I have 60 days of sub left, but frankly I have zero enthusiasm for the game now. SWTOR is over for me... much sooner than I expected.

First I read the PTS is closing (no Madness Assassin fix)... and now this. They seem to have a habit of stringing people along for months without giving a straight answer when they clearly had it all along.

 

Nevertheless, it was a good run. o/

 

/unsubscribe

Edited March 25, 2013 by MrRuck

Well hello high ping - and hello Elder Scrolls online...

Ew. Ew. Ew.

 

I play swtor because of the low ping for AP. Hopefully Elders scrolls releases AP servers .

 

/unsub.

Freedom...... o.O

I won't be quitting. I started on NA servers. I have put in to much effort. Plus no other game catches my eye ATM

I won't be quitting. I started on NA servers. I have put in to much effort. Plus no other game catches my eye ATM

 

I also started on the American servers but I'm not going back from 20ms to 160ms+

It won't hurt PvE players that much (i raided on WoW for years with **** ping) but PvP will be a no go when some 12 yr old with 15ms will be running rings around u all the while u r trying to work out why your moves r not working thanks a lot BW

Hey everyone,

 

To clarify a bit more about this decision. We did previously ask what folks on the forums would like to do as an APAC solution and some, but not all, offered up the solution of merging all APAC into one. The other option on the table was to merge APAC into the NA servers. When we discussed the options internally we looked to address everyone’s primary issues with APAC, low populations were creating a less than optimal game experience.

 

We went and looked at what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the population problems. Even with that solution you would still see long queue times for things like Warzones and Group Finder. It was because of this that we decided that moving APAC into the NA servers was the best option.

 

One thing to note is that there is no catchall solution here. If we move APAC to NA some folks will see increased latency, but they will have healthy server populations and can remain on their chosen server types. If we merge everyone into one APAC server, latency will remain in place but the current population issues will exist and players will lose their preferred server type. Leaving things as they are leaves all of the current issues in place without a solution at all. This is one of the reasons getting the plan out to you folks took so long, we had to think long and hard about all of the implications of our decision.

 

-eric

 

 

 

Well this looks even more ominous...

Edited March 25, 2013 by Afieri

lol they asked us what we would want?

what a *********** joke they didn't ask us **** all

Why doesn't my $15/month count for anything?!

Why doesn't my $15/month count for anything?!

 

EA-ware, biofail nuf said I think

How stupid are the people that run this game.... FFS BW do you not SEE what we are saying??? do you understand that this WILL cost you more subs!!!!!!!!!!!!

You could probably thank a few certain RP guilds on my server ( Gav Daragon) that didnt want the merge. I and my guild was all for a server merge. This sucks......

You could probably thank a few certain RP guilds on my server ( Gav Daragon) that didnt want the merge. I and my guild was all for a server merge. This sucks......

 

Those certain RP guilds can probably pat themselves in the back as they will be losing their names too.

Are you guys for real ?. What dumb twit came up with this game buster and you get paid for these decisions ***. Don't think I will be playing not with a PING of 250 back to BF3.

That's it for me, I'm out. The ping on the US servers are out at 250+ ms for me, making PVP an unrealistic option.

I personally would have prefered the option of transfering to another APAC sever or a US server, but i guess the mergers with the US servers were the easier option. Been fun playing with all the people on Master D, now it's time to find a new game.

Are you guys for real ?. What dumb twit came up with this game buster and you get paid for these decisions ***. Don't think I will be playing not with a PING of 250 back to BF3.

 

im with u mate **** this **** man thought it was our decision not yours i thought transfers n merging within our own apac servers not going to NA servers now thats a pathetic cop out lame excuse tht we arnt getting the same traffic or what not merge pve with pvp keep rp to itself n thts final u absalute game killing fuktards def un subbing if we go to north america we cant even raid at there times we will be asleep who are the noobs now ..

I never played on the NA servers to start with i went straight to APAC so im not sure how much the change in ping will really affect me, i don't see playing a deception sin in pvp being a good idea though, with that said there are a lot of people on Dalborra with pings around 200 ms and while not ideal they still do fine. what erks me the most about this merge is that i lose character names and that we will all lose APAC players in the process.

 

this has not been one of biowares best decisions, its a pretty bad decision but the fact we are moving to a NA server wont cause me to quit, but if enough of the people i know leave the game, that will probably lead to me leaving.

Are you freaking serious?! I can't believe they came to that conclusion, probably another way to save money by eliminating the costs of running the APAC servers.

 

Well I hope they let the players with the greater /played time on their various toons keep their names (I can't see this happening but would be a nice consideration). It would be very disheartening to lose your toons identity with this server merge which will result in many people eventually losing interest and unsubbing.

Are you freaking serious?! I can't believe they came to that conclusion, probably another way to save money by eliminating the costs of running the APAC servers.

 

Well I hope they let the players with the greater /played time on their various toons keep their names (I can't see this happening but would be a nice consideration). It would be very disheartening to lose your toons identity with this server merge which will result in many people eventually losing interest and unsubbing.

 

I agree 100% how will people know that I'M Keiga , the fleet idiot and servers worst speller? HOW I ASK YOU!