I primary on Satele Shan server but have recently started playing more on Star Forge due to Satele Shan being less populated. I seem to be able to play PvP almost any time on Star Forge while on Satele Shan it seems to die out a few hours after prime time.

 

Is the population on Star Forge too great to accommodate Satele Shan being merged?

It may be more of a 'time zone' thing, than a population thing. If I recall, more 'west coast' and APAC players are on Satele Shan, so the peak PvP times could be different than Star Forge.

Possible to merge Satele Shan server and Star Forge server

Possible, yes. Time zone issue: the servers are in the same building. There'd just be populations who play at different times on the same rack.

It's not a time zone issue - since July the game lost ~43% of its players according to steam charts. Taken into account that not all players play over steam the real number may be smaller, but even if its just ~30%, the trend where it goes is very obvious. Edited September 22, 2022 by Xhuuyaa

It's not a time zone issue - since July the game lost ~43% of its players according to steam charts. Taken into account that not all players play over steam the real number may be smaller, but even if its just ~30%, the trend where it goes is very obvious.

 

Who is playing where, which is what a time zone issue would be, is different than how many play in total. Numbers may rise and fall, but if they're predominantly rising and falling on the east coast versus the west coast, the number is irrelevant; there'd still be a time zone issue.

Edited September 22, 2022 by xordevoreaux

Who is playing where, which is what a time zone issue would be, is different than how many play in total. Numbers may rise and fall, but if they're predominantly rising and falling on the east coast versus the west coast, the number is irrelevant; there'd still be a time zone issue.

 

Star Forge has a much greater population, you can tell this by checking the fleet count at any time of day. Star Forge will usually have more fleet instances than Satele Shan (on Imperial side).

Edited September 22, 2022 by illgot

They have needed to merge the servers for a while now. Considering both servers are located in the same place it would make sense to merge them. It would certainly benefit the players if a already small population was not split between 2 servers that are technically no different from each other.

 

My theory for why Bioware hasn't merged them yet is so they can continue to make money off character server transfers.

I don't see them doing this.

 

However, IF they do, please give us a LOT of advance notice.

 

I seem to remember the hardcap of toons is 100 per server (the max you can unlock anyway).

 

I'd have to manually delete about 20 toons, before hand, between the two servers to get down to that amount.

My theory for why Bioware hasn't merged them yet is so they can continue to make money off character server transfers.

If Bioware needs character transfer revenue to pay the light bill, EA has more serious problems.

I miss the Ebon Hawk server.....

Two things to consider:

1) Star Forge sometimes has queues on bigger days like after patches. Adding Satele Shan population might lead to more frequent queues even outside patch days. Players from both servers would be more frustrated if they can't play in prime time.

 

2) Some players, primarily solo players, prefer lower population so they don't have to fight with players over mobs or quest objectives. It's not uncommon for Satele Shan planets to have one instance with <15 players and barely see anyone the whole time you're there. Not good from an MMO standpoint but good for solo players.

Two things to consider:

1) Star Forge sometimes has queues on bigger days like after patches. Adding Satele Shan population might lead to more frequent queues even outside patch days. Players from both servers would be more frustrated if they can't play in prime time.

 

2) Some players, primarily solo players, prefer lower population so they don't have to fight with players over mobs or quest objectives. It's not uncommon for Satele Shan planets to have one instance with <15 players and barely see anyone the whole time you're there. Not good from an MMO standpoint but good for solo players.

 

1) I haven't seen a queue for StarForge in a very long time. The only times I've seen reports of them (as opposed to seeing them personally) was when there was something wrong with the login server.

 

2) This is less of a problem with mob sharing / kill sharing. Even after it was introduced at the start of 7.0 I still see players waiting for the next mob spawn instead of jumping in to get the kill. It's especially handy for mobs that have longer respawn times, like the final guy on the "Possesed" DK heroic. If you even get 1 hit in before he is killed, you get credit. The only time it doesn't work is cross faction. The only time I see THAT being a problem is the Heroic / Droid boss on CZ-198.

 

One thing I haven't seen, though, to everyone's credit, is farming that particular mob so the other faction players can't get in on it. That'd be mean.

1) I haven't seen a queue for StarForge in a very long time. The only times I've seen reports of them (as opposed to seeing them personally) was when there was something wrong with the login server.

 

2) This is less of a problem with mob sharing / kill sharing. Even after it was introduced at the start of 7.0 I still see players waiting for the next mob spawn instead of jumping in to get the kill. It's especially handy for mobs that have longer respawn times, like the final guy on the "Possesed" DK heroic. If you even get 1 hit in before he is killed, you get credit. The only time it doesn't work is cross faction. The only time I see THAT being a problem is the Heroic / Droid boss on CZ-198.

 

One thing I haven't seen, though, to everyone's credit, is farming that particular mob so the other faction players can't get in on it. That'd be mean.

 

last time I saw a queue on Star Forge the log in server was having issues.

 

Right, with world instancing + tagging + improvements on spawn timers for quest items, completing missions is not an issue like it was in 6.0. Even quest mobs that you need to kill are resetting faster than in 6.0,

Edited September 22, 2022 by illgot

Ugh, please no.

 

Server character cap issues, name conflicts and overcrowding just for what? So PvP players get faster pops on off hours?

 

Star Forge is already busier than I like. I'm constantly having to switch to other instances to get away from the crowds, and it doesn't always work as those can be busy too.

Ugh, please no.

 

Server character cap issues, name conflicts and overcrowding just for what? So PvP players get faster pops on off hours?

 

Star Forge is already busier than I like. I'm constantly having to switch to other instances to get away from the crowds, and it doesn't always work as those can be busy too.

This. The game is still pretty populated and merging the servers would make it too crowded.

This. The game is still pretty populated and merging the servers would make it too crowded.

 

SF has four instances of Fleet, Imperial side, one of those is depopulating.

 

SS has two instances of Fleet, Imperial side, one of those is depopulating.

 

SF has at least three times the population of SS (roughly, we all know official numbers are never released). There are two full instances for the SF server and SS can't even fill one.

 

This is Friday prime time.

 

You don't want SF too crowded? Drop to the least populated instance. There could be 100 instances open, but the least populated ones will have very few people and if will be very easy to avoid crowds.

 

The gain for everyone else faster and easier match making for Flashpoints, Operations, PvP, open world missions, buying and selling items or just chatting.

 

The downside... having to drop down to a less populated instance to avoid crowds, which are not even a problem with the tagging system and faster respawn timers on mission objectives.

Edited September 24, 2022 by illgot

SF has four instances of Fleet, Imperial side, one of those is depopulating.

 

SS has two instances of Fleet, Imperial side, one of those is depopulating.

 

SF has at least three times the population of SS (roughly, we all know official numbers are never released). There are two full instances for the SF server and SS can't even fill one.

 

This is Friday prime time.

 

You don't want SF too crowded? Drop to the least populated instance. There could be 100 instances open, but the least populated ones will have very few people and if will be very easy to avoid crowds.

 

The gain for everyone else faster and easier match making for Flashpoints, Operations, PvP, open world missions, buying and selling items or just chatting.

 

The downside... having to drop down to a less populated instance to avoid crowds, which are not even a problem with the tagging system and faster respawn timers on mission objectives.

 

I seem to remember they said they boosted the number of active players per instance quite awhile ago. 3 instances on fleet MIGHT be the same number as 6 or 8 full instances from 5 years ago.

 

I don't know what the actual numbers were, or currently are.

I primary on Satele Shan server but have recently started playing more on Star Forge due to Satele Shan being less populated. I seem to be able to play PvP almost any time on Star Forge while on Satele Shan it seems to die out a few hours after prime time.

 

Is the population on Star Forge too great to accommodate Satele Shan being merged?

 

haha sentsterling,

 

admit defeat.

 

the star ford server is 100x better than satele shan. I knew satele shan was in shambles during 6.0 when I couldn't find TC Spam, torborro's courtyard spam 24/7 like you could on star forge. now look at your beautiful glorious satele shan server, you got beggers wanting free transfers by bioware out via merger

 

 

It's not a time zone issue - since July the game lost ~43% of its players according to steam charts. Taken into account that not all players play over steam the real number may be smaller, but even if its just ~30%, the trend where it goes is very obvious.

Who is playing where, which is what a time zone issue would be, is different than how many play in total. Numbers may rise and fall, but if they're predominantly rising and falling on the east coast versus the west coast, the number is irrelevant; there'd still be a time zone issue.

Star Forge has a much greater population, you can tell this by checking the fleet count at any time of day. Star Forge will usually have more fleet instances than Satele Shan (on Imperial side).

I played galactic season 2 on all servers. I can tell you for a fact, queue times at times of day

 

1. Star Forge

2. Darth Malgus

3. Satele Shan

4. Tulak Hord

5. Leviathan

 

^ -- by population and activity, measured in queue times of pvp and gsf and fp

 

the S S server is the runt NA server

 

This. The game is still pretty populated and merging the servers would make it too crowded.

SF has four instances of Fleet, Imperial side, one of those is depopulating.

 

SS has two instances of Fleet, Imperial side, one of those is depopulating.

 

SF has at least three times the population of SS (roughly, we all know official numbers are never released). There are two full instances for the SF server and SS can't even fill one.

 

This is Friday prime time.

 

You don't want SF too crowded? Drop to the least populated instance. There could be 100 instances open, but the least populated ones will have very few people and if will be very easy to avoid crowds.

 

The gain for everyone else faster and easier match making for Flashpoints, Operations, PvP, open world missions, buying and selling items or just chatting.

 

The downside... having to drop down to a less populated instance to avoid crowds, which are not even a problem with the tagging system and faster respawn timers on mission objectives.

stop caring about servers and just care about the game

 

galactic season is play to earn cartel coin gambit

 

galactic season asks you to play on each and every server for maximum cartel coin reward. play a hand at all servers and reaching level 100 on all servers. you'll be an expert on server health, more than satele shan loyalist, fanatic sterling

Edited September 24, 2022 by Falensawino

I find it questionable to use Steam to guage level of player activities.

Does anyone even know what % of people use Steam to play this game?

 

I can tell you for certain, I do not.

I find it questionable to use Steam to guage level of player activities.

Does anyone even know what % of people use Steam to play this game?

 

I can tell you for certain, I do not.

 

I'm not aware of anyone outside of Bioware who knows the answer to the question of Steam vs. Non-Steam players. With that said, it is still a useful tool and I prefer to think of the Steam count reflecting broader trends. How broad is unclear, but consider the following:

 

1) Granted it is a small sample to the point of being anecdotal, but every person I know who plays the game, which has sadly dwindled down to eight, all switched over to Steam when it made SWTOR available. So far, it has worked flawlessly for me and those I know. I have read on Reddit about some having difficulty with it, but it works great for me.

 

2) The more troubling aspect from the perspective of game health is the trendline since August with both average and peak number of players plummeting. One might take issue with my use of the term "plummeting" but here is the raw data and forum-goers can decide for themselves.

 

https://steamcharts.com/app/1286830

 

What is particulalry disturbing about these numbers are they coincide with the launch of 7.1, which went live on August 2. To have over a 40 percent drop in Steam players in such a short time with the first launch of new content since 7.0 is impossible to spin in a positive light.

 

We can surmise as to what accounts for this drop, but I think it is safe to say 7.1 was not the smashing success Bioware (and, frankly, us players) hoped for. It is the first time that new content for SWTOR was released since launching on Steam when the numbers didn't even remain stable. For me it is the sad culmination of a number of poor design choices and misallocation of scarce resources.

 

As to question of server mergers, I'm agnostic, but I don't see it happening. If it does, I agree with Darev that Bioware should give plenty of advance notice.

 

 

Dasty

Edited September 24, 2022 by Jdast

My play time has dropped since 7.1 and there are two reasons for it.

 

The 1st reason is the 330 mod vendor. I got my main and ALL of my lvl 80 alts geard up to at least 326 using that vendor. So..less time grinding and doing stuff in game for fun.

However....(reason 1.5) there's not much right now that's "fun" for me. Last week I barely logged in to get the 4 day "weekly" login reward. This week it will be the same thing. There were 2 days I didn't even open the game up.

 

Reason 2: Command and Conquer Generals. Yes, an even OLDER game that I'm having MORE fun with. I'm playing that far more than I'm playing this.

Edited September 24, 2022 by Darev

Ugh, please no.

 

Server character cap issues, name conflicts and overcrowding just for what? So PvP players get faster pops on off hours?

 

Star Forge is already busier than I like. I'm constantly having to switch to other instances to get away from the crowds, and it doesn't always work as those can be busy too.

 

This + Star Forge supremacy must be maintained. It (Ebon Hawk) is in our BLOOD.

Reason 2: Command and Conquer Generals. Yes, an even OLDER game that I'm having MORE fun with. I'm playing that far more than I'm playing this.

 

nice. I used to multiplayer with my friends all the time in that game. first command and conquer since EA acquired Westwood.

 

I would drop swtor for my old games in a heart beat. but what stops me is the subscription marriage, married to the subscription. it's cheating if I play another game.

2. peer pressure is in swtor. guilds and officer rank, logging in to stay GM in dead guilds. etc.

 

 

Ugh, please no.

 

Server character cap issues, name conflicts and overcrowding just for what? So PvP players get faster pops on off hours?

 

Star Forge is already busier than I like. I'm constantly having to switch to other instances to get away from the crowds, and it doesn't always work as those can be busy too.

 

This + Star Forge supremacy must be maintained. It (Ebon Hawk) is in our BLOOD.

Prophecy of the Five mind you. Legacy of the PVP only servers

Edited September 26, 2022 by Falensawino

Please no. I miss Ebon Hawk where you could RP without any problems. Now, if you want to RP (any other place than your strongholds) you can wind up having people interfere (i.e. spamming emotes while you are RP) or telling you that you don't belong there and to go somewhere else. We don't need more of the same from merging another server.

I do believe that servers have capacity limits. I don't think it's just as simple as bring them all over to the other server and business as usual. StarForge was created by combining 5 servers, whereas the others were created combining 3 servers. Were they to do that, it would be like combining 8 servers. - StarForge already has a large population, and I don't think it could handle the capacity of 8 servers.

 

The added population, even if it were possible, would still cause many issues. Most people on Star Forge, from what i have seen talked about both on the forums and in game don't want any mergers. Bioware would be pissing off a lot of people. - Speaking for myself, I certainly wouldn't want a merger.

 

Additionally, if they ever did that, it with be the death keel of the game because it would be in effect like saying The United States, the most populated continent on the face of the planet doesn't have enough players to have more than one server. The writing would be on the wall at that point, and there are some people who aren't going to waste their time, effort, and care into a game that is on the way out anyways.

 

There's always been an unhealthy rivalry between the two servers since the last go around of server mergers. The old school Harbingerites didn't like the fact that they were no longer on the biggest, most populated server, and so calls for server mergers between the two have always been suspect because of it. They tried to label Star Forge the 'RP server' and Satale Shan the 'Raider/PVP' server to get people to go over there when such labels had no basis in truth.

 

Not to be an ***, but, the problems of Satale Shan, should they exist, are Satale Shan's problem. The players on Star Forge are pretty happy overall with the health of the server, and they don't want to see that apple cart turned over.

 

If someone isn't happy on Satele Shan than they always have the option of transferring over to Star Forge anyways. No merger necessary.

Edited September 26, 2022 by WayOfTheWarriorx