Edited Wrong quote

He's right /signed / bumped and +1 add nothing to the discussion

This is an important issue and people need to express it in a better way

/support

Cross-server unlikely to happen since APAC servers are physically located outside US, which was supposed to be a good thing, if the boat didn't sink that fast & serious.

So 2 options left:

1) Give the people an option at APAC servers who want to move back to US servers to free transfer away.

2) Then for the APAC people who choose to stay because of ping preference, merge the 3 APAC servers into one.

If that happens, I might return to play, now is just wasting my time. (an unsubscripted APAC player)

Good post Chippy,

But here's the thing regarding t-fers/merge

Populations on the Oceanic servers are certainly an issue that needs to be addressed, I notice that during the day the Imperial Fleet typically has 40-60 people on while in the evenings it seems to average 100-120.

When the servers first opened I'd often see well over 300 on fleet of an evening, the starter worlds with >100 people in various zones etc.

Merging three very distinct communities and removing entirely (I presume quite safely I think, that PvE is the common ground), dedicated PvP and RP servers is a rather desperate measure - it'll certainly address the particular (and important) issue of population (in the short term) but the negative effects may also be quite significant - particularly going forward if new players attracted to the game don't have these well established MMO options.

There has to be a better answer.

My impression is that BW only has a few thousand subscribers on the Oceanic servers (whatever the actual number, it's a tiny fraction of their whole player base). It doesn't seem likely that there can there be a clear business case for pursuing x-server solutions (which additionally, they've been totally against for philosophical reasons right from the start).

I say this because EA is all about the bottom line and the only way we'll see action on it is if both the numbers add up and BW has the capacity and interest to pursue it.

... and now that I've mentioned capacity and interest - BW is clearly busting a gut just to get content out and finish off "quality of life" features that have been missing from key features for quite some time.

There's also that not-insignificant project they're working on to add 5 extra levels to the game and the new world Makeb (amongst other things). There's been precious little work on updating / improving existing class abilities & features and as we've seen most recently with the proposed 1.4 changes, the things they are working on are highly peripheral yet also clumsily controversial.

The PTS though it had been sitting idle for months (aside presumably from internal use) wasn't ready for more than a handful of players to use. When you look at the company as a whole it's clear that it's divided into teams who each have their own goals, directions and valuations; The chance we'll see BW somehow pull themselves together to get properly organized and tackle things in a more thoughtful, cohesive manner really seems quite slim.

Good post Chippy,

 

But here's the thing regarding t-fers/merge

 

 

Well, fair enough. One less game to play.

I only see two options:

1) Consolidate all of the APAC servers into a single server.

Pros: Good latency

Cons: Which server type (PvE, RP, PVP, RP-PVP) for the single server? Bound to piss off some customers who are forced into something they do not want.

2) Merge APAC servers back to US West

Pros: Everyone keeps their server type

Cons: Back to bad latency.

This is a difficult choice which will inevitably lead to one group of people being happy and another being pissed off. I can see why Bioware hasn't done anything about it yet because they can't win no matter what they do.

I only see two options:

 

1) Consolidate all of the APAC servers into a single server.

Pros: Good latency

Cons: Which server type (PvE, RP, PVP, RP-PVP) for the single server? Bound to piss off some customers who are forced into something they do not want.

 

2) Merge APAC servers back to US West

Pros: Everyone keeps their server type

Cons: Back to bad latency.

 

This is a difficult choice which will inevitably lead to one group of people being happy and another being pissed off. I can see why Bioware hasn't done anything about it yet because they can't win no matter what they do.

See my post on previous page, it's gg.

I only see two options:

 

1) Consolidate all of the APAC servers into a single server.

Pros: Good latency

Cons: Which server type (PvE, RP, PVP, RP-PVP) for the single server? Bound to piss off some customers who are forced into something they do not want.

 

2) Merge APAC servers back to US West

Pros: Everyone keeps their server type

Cons: Back to bad latency.

 

This is a difficult choice which will inevitably lead to one group of people being happy and another being pissed off. I can see why Bioware hasn't done anything about it yet because they can't win no matter what they do.

Actually if they do anything it should be:

Offer players on DG/MDN the choice of going to Dalborra or back to a West Coast US PVP/RP server. Some people care more about latency, some care more about RP/PVP. One solution does not fit all so you give people a choice.

That said: I'm on Dalborra so I'm all for boosting our population but I don't suffer any of the downsides of a server transfer. I feel for the people on GD/MDN though.

Actually if they do anything it should be:

Offer players on DG/MDN the choice of going to Dalborra or back to a West Coast US PVP/RP server. Some people care more about latency, some care more about RP/PVP. One solution does not fit all so you give people a choice.

 

That said: I'm on Dalborra so I'm all for boosting our population but I don't suffer any of the downsides of a server transfer. I feel for the people on GD/MDN though.

Optional transfers makes the population situation even worse for those people who want to stick around. Look what happened to the origin servers after they first opened transfers.

I don't trust Joveth

he seems to be stuck up somewhere.

The sever populations on the RP and PvP servers are very low.

https://twitter.com/Joveth

Optional transfers makes the population situation even worse for those people who want to stick around. Look what happened to the origin servers after they first opened transfers.

If you choose to stay, I choose to move, then why I have to be forced to stay for your population sake? People who choose to move back to US has prepared to suffer the higher ping if they are form Aus. For those who choose to stay, less population is the cost you should prepare to suffer. Every choice has its consequence.

In fact, I don't believe the 3 servers merge will save the APAC servers, even if we had 3 servers into 1, sooner or later, the only 1 mega APAC server would stay in light population anyway or then close. F2P will pump the subs up? Which F2P MMO succeeds to offer a health populate APAC server?

Although I a happy with the population lvls on Dalborra right now, I still agree that this needs to be addressed as there are clearly many people who are greatly concerned about this.

And I would also like to add a +1 for the objections to the nature of the CS post in this thread.

guildwars is starting to look a lot more attractive...

thank you bioware for appreciating the 9 months of subs I've put in by not even deeming it necessary to comment properly on the thread.

My sub ends in 2 - 3 weeks. I was thinking of getting another 60 days but after that response, well I guess I'll be saying goodbye to swtor.

Good job!

The more people respond to EAWare because of that ignorant post, the more inclined they will be to do something about this issue! I think I'll end up doing the same as you.

They dont seem to care about us at all.

Just take a look at how the servers were down for 9+ hours during our prime playing hours for the merger and we didnt even get a single thing out of it.

Not to mention we didnt get 12 slots........

/signed It seems quite clear that EA/BW is regretting opening the Asia-Pacific servers. By letting the populations dwindle down, it seems they will have justification for closing the servers down. I've been a subscriber since the game dropped. I put up with 700+ms latency times on EU servers just so I could play the game. When the AP servers opened, EA/BW told me that I wouldn't be offered a free transfer because my country (I live in Thailand) wasn't a country where the game was "officially released". Due to this "problem", they more or less told me my options were re-roll new characters or stop playing the game. Now, I'm no genius, but I can't imagine this being used as a business administration textbook example of "good customer service practices".

EA/BW has, more or less, trapped us into "going down with the ship". I sat there, helplessly, as my original EU server died a slow death. Instead of making it up to me by giving me a free transfer, EA/BW decided to go the "tough ****" route. Now I'm sitting on the AP PVP server watching the same series of events happen again. Without a server merge, it's just a matter of time before all the AP servers go under. It seems to me that EA/BW would be more than happy to watch the AP and EU servers die off as I highly doubt they're profitable to the company. The only place this game is making any money is in the US, so why should they bother to treat their current EU/AP customers well?

Needless to say that if there isn't a server merge coming in a timely manner, this will be my last three month subscription. At the moment, I'm kind of regretting having purchased my current subscription.

I suspect that Bioware might have signed contract with service provider for these 3 servers for running within certain period, while they thought SWTOR would had e a huge demand with enough ppl to fill up at least 3 servers for years.

Although now is clearly not the case, they have to stuck with 3 servers at the min.. Whether they keep the servers or not, rental payment must continue. Hence, Bioware is hopeless on this issue as well as like us. LOL.

(My guessing)

I suspect that Bioware might have signed contract with service provider for these 3 servers for running within certain period, while they thought SWTOR would had e a huge demand with enough ppl to fill up at least 3 servers for years.

 

Although now is clearly not the case, they have to stuck with 3 servers at the min.. Whether they keep the servers or not, rental payment must continue. Hence, Bioware is hopeless on this issue as well as like us. LOL.

 

(My guessing)

Even if that is the case, they can pay the rent while allowing transfers between the three APAC servers. This way we can do the work ourselves, get organised and migrate to one central server. We actually wont be needing super servers to support the load even with all three servers combined. lol

I suspect that Bioware might have signed contract with service provider for these 3 servers for running within certain period, while they thought SWTOR would had e a huge demand with enough ppl to fill up at least 3 servers for years.

 

Although now is clearly not the case, they have to stuck with 3 servers at the min.. Whether they keep the servers or not, rental payment must continue. Hence, Bioware is hopeless on this issue as well as like us. LOL.

 

(My guessing)

Your post makes zero sense. Even if they're locked into renting servers out, why alienate large numbers of subscribers and reducing their revenue by forcing people to play on dead servers?

Even if that is the case, they can pay the rent while allowing transfers between the three APAC servers. This way we can do the work ourselves, get organised and migrate to one central server. We actually wont be needing super servers to support the load even with all three servers combined. lol

Maybe they are waiting or dreaming (depends on the result) F2P to save these hopeless servers.

Here's the response from forwarding a ticket about this several days ago.

Thank you for contacting us to let us know about your query on Asia Pacific server consolidations's additional character slot.

 

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenienced caused.

 

I apologize, however, I am unable to comment further on your query because the information that you are requesting has not yet been made available to players through the official website. Please note that all of the most up-to-date Star Wars ™: The Old Republic™ information currently available can be found on our website.

 

I also recommend that you post feedbacks and suggestions in the Suggestion Box area of the official Community Forums. Please remember that we are always open to hearing constructive feedback and ideas from our players.

 

The development team often offer teasers and previews of new content and address player concerns directly on the forums, and the Developer Tracker is a quick way to see all of the most recent forum posts from Star Wars: The Old Republic developers. You can find the Dev tracker here: http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php.

 

Don’t forget to sign-up for our newsletter so you can be among the first to receive our announcements: http://www.swtor.com.

 

Thank you again for letting us know about your concern.

 

Should you need further assistance with this matter or any other concerns you may encounter while playing, please do not hesitate to let us know.

 

Regards,

 

Emmanuel

Star Wars ™: The Old Republic™ Customer Service

 

Now you can invite your friends to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic for free. Visit http://www.swtor.com/info/friends for more information, and help them get started today!

 

We would love to hear your feedback on our Customer Service and invite you to fill out the following survey which will help us to continually improve our support!

https://www.research.net/s/TOREN?c=U3-M16463341

Apologies mean squat if nothing is being done. Like the most recent Dev post, it's the same 'ol generic slap in the face to the Oceanic community. Decent customer service would at least try and appease us, rather than continuing to upset the player base.

EAware has show total disregard to any issues that have arisen from this weeks maintenance. Even the US/European have been getting vague, uninformative responses to issues regarding character names, last minute announcements of additional server mergers, etc.

They seem to have all their hopes pinned on F2P making this game successful, yet they seem to be happy to drive off their actual paying customers.

They seem to have all their hopes pinned on F2P making this game successful, yet they seem to be happy to drive off their actual paying customers.

Maybe that's their plan, drive away the old customers and start with fresh new customers via the F2P model as they would be unaware of the games problems and would not be "pestering" them to fix their game.

In EA/Bioware's mind that would equate to starting over.