Dear Sirs!

I understand that you label SWTOR as an MMORPG. For those new to the label; it stands for "Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game".

The first and the last point is tightly connected because if you just make a MOG, a Multiplayer Online Game, then bundling up say 40-50 people together is well enough for most games.

When it comes to Roleplaying though, it tends to gather more.

I've been on marvellous RPG events for two weeks now, with the Eclipse, Light of Alderaan, The Lost Praxeum and I belive there were some more RP-guilds along that I fail to remember the names of, during a well plan and expertly executed storyline called "Shadow of Glory". It was really great.

Only problem was that you could never be sure to "get in" on any night unless you were among the first to get there. As soon at the event came close to start the instance of the planet used (Corellia) was full.

A few extra people could be "squeezed" in by including them in an ops group but after that no one else could enter.

Last night we had major problem getting the last attendants in and the playercount for Corellia stated: 42.

I take it that the number 42 only refered to the number of republic players and I do belive that the number of imperials was greater.

Maybe it was a whole 100 together?

100?

That's not really "massive" is it?

Or how do you at Bioware belive that "Massive MORPG" should be defined?

I'd like to know.

The size of SWTOR is

Subs at launch - 80% of subs - subs who got bored of the game + free to play + cartel market

The number you see is the instance of the republic that you are in. There could be multiple instances.

What you see on Correllia is just for Correllia and for that particular instance of your faction. There are people playing on all planets at the same time often in multiple instances per faction. Correllia is also not a real favourite as far as I know, so people like myself just do the main story quests and get out of there asap.

But if you add all instances of your faction of all planets, including the fleet instances and the flash points and operations and warzones together, you end up with thousands of players easily just on one faction.

People just tend to be spread out over different areas and different activities and some planets are just less popular.

This massive:

[---------------------------------------]

Roughly

Last night we had major problem getting the last attendants in and the playercount for Corellia stated: 42.

Well of course it did, we all know that 42 is the answer to everything

The size of SWTOR is

 

Subs at launch - 80% of subs - subs who got bored of the game + free to play + cartel market

So, where exactly did you pull the 80% number from.

I kind of know, but i want to see you try to get out of that one.

Dear Sirs!

 

I understand that you label SWTOR as an MMORPG. For those new to the label; it stands for "Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game".

 

The first and the last point is tightly connected because if you just make a MOG, a Multiplayer Online Game, then bundling up say 40-50 people together is well enough for most games.

When it comes to Roleplaying though, it tends to gather more.

 

I've been on marvellous RPG events for two weeks now, with the Eclipse, Light of Alderaan, The Lost Praxeum and I belive there were some more RP-guilds along that I fail to remember the names of, during a well plan and expertly executed storyline called "Shadow of Glory". It was really great.

 

Only problem was that you could never be sure to "get in" on any night unless you were among the first to get there. As soon at the event came close to start the instance of the planet used (Corellia) was full.

A few extra people could be "squeezed" in by including them in an ops group but after that no one else could enter.

 

Last night we had major problem getting the last attendants in and the playercount for Corellia stated: 42.

I take it that the number 42 only refered to the number of republic players and I do belive that the number of imperials was greater.

Maybe it was a whole 100 together?

 

100?

That's not really "massive" is it?

Or how do you at Bioware belive that "Massive MORPG" should be defined?

 

I'd like to know.

When it started you had maybe two to three hundred players per planet, and even now you get over the two hundred player mark on some planets. But you still get thousands of players per server, and since they can group together for flashpoints, or talk via guild chat (if in a guild) it does fulfill the Masively part of Massively Multiplayer Online.

Much of the time on a standard population server it 'feels' like a single player game, with way to much trash to wade through, if you are not on the starter worlds, home worlds, fleets, or the daily areas!

During 3 hours of play today, other than my other party member, I have not seen a single other player outside the cantina...

So, where exactly did you pull the 80% number from.

 

I kind of know, but i want to see you try to get out of that one.

I made it up. There, I'm out of "that one". But the sub loss was probably around 80%, in my opinion.

I don't think the OP was commenting on the number of players in the game. It was a statement on how many players can actually get into one phase of a planet.

He was in a roleplaying event and as soon as they tried to get more than 40 players into it the game opened up a new phase.

Unfortunately OP most of the game base is not into roleplaying events, they want to be able to get their regular questing done. If you place the population too high then you can be faced with the prospect of long waits for certain mobs/ quest items to respawn.

Earlier on in the games history there were constant calls to reduce the number of players allowed into a single phase before a new one was generated.

While it would be nice to have 60+ players turn up for a RP event on any planet they want you may have to live with the limitation of holding those sort of events on the Capitol planet.

Or maybe, if it's not so hard coded into the engine see if RP based servers can have the potential populations of their phases increased.

There are zones that have bigger instance caps than others (the small daily areas are the smallest caps, big open space planets and Fleet are usually the biggest). Unfortunately the trend has been people asking consistently to lower caps to reduce competition rather than increase them since that is the majority of challenges that people face. I don't think instance caps have ever been higher than 150 for most planets. Fleet was 250 at one point but it's more like 200 now.

I'm pretty sure if you gathered more than 300 people in one small area the lag in the area would just be insane.

There are zones that have bigger instance caps than others (the small daily areas are the smallest caps, big open space planets and Fleet are usually the biggest). Unfortunately the trend has been people asking consistently to lower caps to reduce competition rather than increase them since that is the majority of challenges that people face. I don't think instance caps have ever been higher than 150 for most planets. Fleet was 250 at one point but it's more like 200 now.

 

I'm pretty sure if you gathered more than 300 people in one small area the lag in the area would just be insane.

/Agree.

The issue is that players complain about competition for Mission items and mobs. The reality is that in many cases.. there ARE plenty of mission items or mobs...IF you get off the beaten pathway just a bit.. but people won't do it.. so Bioware tunes the instance counts and the repop rates in the instances to adjust to player desires.

It's a no win situation for Bioware. It's either "waaaahhhh! there's nobody around!" or "waaaahhh! there's too many people around!"

The reality is that a server running at STANDARD has between 4000-5000 players on it and anyone that wants to play with other players can easily do so.. by seeking them out. So the whole "it's not massive enough" complaints are more about player laziness these days then actual issues with there being no people to play with on a server.

The reality is that a server running at STANDARD has between 4000-5000 players on it

What is your source for these figures?

It's a no win situation for Bioware. It's either "waaaahhhh! there's nobody around!" or "waaaahhh! there's too many people around!"

 

So the whole "it's not massive enough" complaints are more about player laziness these days then actual issues with there being no people to play with on a server.

This is a classic example of hard core game defenders mocking and insulting people who raise a concern or even ask a question about the game. Even when people like the OP post in a completely mature and rational way, you are still unfortunately going to get this kind of person who is throwing underhanded insults your way and mocking you for saying something that isnt 100% positive about the game. Its a real shame too, because it only hurts the game in the long run.

If you want to the freedom to criticize you have to accept the freedom to disagree with criticism all the same.

I completely agree; its completely fine for people to disagree. What is not fine is for people to mock and insult people they disagree with.

This is a classic example of hard core game defenders mocking and insulting people who raise a concern or even ask a question about the game. Even when people like the OP post in a completely mature and rational way, you are still unfortunately going to get this kind of person who is throwing underhanded insults your way and mocking you for saying something that isnt 100% positive about the game. Its a real shame too, because it only hurts the game in the long run.

Have to agree here and unfortunately it's nothing new here.

OP is bringing up something that I didn't thought about before - if someone or even BW wanted to host an event with more than 50 people in one shard it's probably impossible at his time. It has nothing to do with whining and apparently it's an issue to RP guilds.

I completely agree; its completely fine for people to disagree. What is not fine is for people to mock and insult people they disagree with.

I'm not seeing any insults. Mostly responses to having been insulted.

It looks a bit as if many of the disagreeing posters have not read or not understood the original post.

My appologiez if I were unclear.

It does not matter how many people a server can take and it does not help if there is another instance available.

Nor is it of any interest how many players there are in total or how many of those are F2P or subscribers.

The problem is that you cant be more than about 50 people in one place at the same time.

I'll give you an example:

A Jedi master will be having a lecture about the force.

The lecture will be held on Tython 1.

But when you arrive on Tython 5 minutes before the lecture you can't get into Tython 1 because it is full.

This is the issue.

So, as you can see it does not matter how much the server in total can carry, if the battlezones combine different shards or if there are 1,2 or 3 Tythons to choose from.

Each shard/instance simply has to have a better capacity in order to host the size of groups that are now gathering for RP events.

The fact that we are now hitting the ceiling is a great achievement in itself and credit for this should go both to Bioware and to the RP community enthusiasts and guild leaders who has taken the game this far.

It is however painfull to hit the ceiling and if we keep banging our heads against it, the pain may indeed reduce the overall joy of playing.