Swtor is spread to thin, if they can pull this off by adding 4 Mega Servers PvP,PvE,PR & PvP-PR using zone sharding this will in fact make the game a different game all together, picture a server where every zone has 300 players on each zone with multiple shards holding another 300 players, holy crap this would be crazy fun.
If they can pull this off my hats off to Bioware, they just saved Swtor in one patch.
They still would have to add more socialization to the game, but it would indeed be a good start.
This looks to be much more than a plain server merge because actual population caps are set to rise by a large degree, the existing servers had a stupidly low population cap & contributed to the population issues by forcing the spread over so many different shards.
I frankly don't give a toss for the naysayers becasue this will be good for the game even if it causes a few technical hiccups along the way, servers need a "critical mass" of players to enable warzones & flashpoints across the level spread to actually be feasible & lower wait times.
So, I see this as a popsitive move & hope it is implemented sooner rather than later, it will help any future growth of the game.
This has been blown completely out of proportion, they're just raising the population cap on the servers once transfers come in as the current cap is artificially low. There wil be no "mega servers".
They have lost a lot of subs and now they need to merge. I mean come on, its not like they had high pop servers to begin with, or medium for that matter. It's just another PR spin to down size. Next they will come out and say they just got done MEGA merging the staff.
Only time will tell. To date, they have spun a MEGA amount of the content discussion.
Now, the second part of your statement in my opinion is just not true. I guess it depends on your definition of high pop servers, but this game had completely full servers at launch to the point that they opened more (leaving them in their current mess). Those servers had enough people on them by my standards with over 200+ on the fleets, over 100+ on the first two starter planets, and over 50+ people on many of the other planets. Additionally, that was all day long, not just prime time. A statement that they did not have high pop servers is just not true.
Don't get me wrong, the game has its issues, and many people don't like it, but your claim of no high pop servers sounds like you're now spinning the story.
Look buddy I hate to burst your bubble but i'm playing an mmo game that has around 8k-12k cap per server so to me SWToR's server pop is low for my standards.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Given the timing of this "mega server" announcement, I'd be inclined to think that it is just "PR speak" to avoid that dreaded "server merge" phrase.
Or perhaps the BW techies have made a revolutionary technical breakthrough allowing them to offer this wonderful tech now ?
It's crystal clear that SWTOR needs player consolidation. But how to achieve that without making it sound like a server merge ?
Introduce "Mega Serverstm" !
Then the current playerbase can be "encouraged to consolidate" via server transfers, while the original 214 servers remain active. That means that any currently cancelled accounts can re-sub at any future point, and just instantly transfer to a Mega Server if they find themselves alone on their original server. So no player capital is lost, it's all there waiting for you should you decide to resub at any time in the future
They have lost a lot of subs and now they need to merge. I mean come on, its not like they had high pop servers to begin with, or medium for that matter. It's just another PR spin to down size. Next they will come out and say they just got done MEGA merging the staff.
Only time will tell. To date, they have spun a MEGA amount of the content discussion.
Now, the second part of your statement in my opinion is just not true. I guess it depends on your definition of high pop servers, but this game had completely full servers at launch to the point that they opened more (leaving them in their current mess). Those servers had enough people on them by my standards with over 200+ on the fleets, over 100+ on the first two starter planets, and over 50+ people on many of the other planets. Additionally, that was all day long, not just prime time. A statement that they did not have high pop servers is just not true.
Don't get me wrong, the game has its issues, and many people don't like it, but your claim of no high pop servers sounds like you're now spinning the story.
That simply just isnt high population buddy.... Your tlakign 1 - 2 thousand players per server with thsoe numbers.. where games like Everquest, Rift, Aion, Tera, WoW etc... use servers with 15,000+ players.
Originally posted by Rednecksith Sounds interesting, but why in the BLOODY HELL didn't they launch with this 'mega server' technology in place? They really couldn't wait six months? REALLY? Hell, they could've put the damn legacy system and LFG tools in for launch too while they were at it!
The decisions surrounding this game just completely blow my mind. So much wasted potential, all because they wanted to make a quick buck instead of going for a more profitable long term investment.
They had a deadline made by EA to launch regardless of being ready or not. There was a lot left for Bioware to work on and sadly had to launch somewhat unfinished. You can blame EA for that.
The PvP fiasco however, is all Bioware (and Mythic, the "most experienced pvp dev team in the industry").
Does anyone here even think their game engine could handle mega numbers of players?
More to the point, do they think their small, limited, maze zones could handle mega numbers of players? More people crowded into these rat-runs will render the game unplayable.
Do you actually belive for one minute they are buying new hardware?? Condsidering they just fired 200 folks. Anybody who falls for the new tech of mega servers does not understand what it really means, and that is server merges.
There is no way that ea/bioware is buying new equipment for a game that is dying.
The only thing I could equate with "mega" server technology would be going down the Eve route. When they come back and say that server capacity has been raised to 50,000 concurrent logins, then I will believe the "mega" hype. Until then, its just spin, ie a carrot to keep people from hitting the cancel button.
Its just a pr stunt to mask server merges, lol. Its not the first game to do it either.
They HAVE TO merge their servers, but merge itself sounsd bad. So instead, they decide to go with 'now our servers can hold 2-5x more people per servers, so we are going to merge existing servers into our bigger, better and much cooler servers, which by the way wont have more people playing on them than they had in swtor first months'.
other games do it. Their current servers might as well make home for 2,3 low pop servers, so even if they end up with 1/3 of current numbers, they wont actually need better servers at all
so merge is coming, and just plain merge sounds... bad. So they instead make a fancy name for it and people get hyped over it incredible
They have lost a lot of subs and now they need to merge. I mean come on, its not like they had high pop servers to begin with, or medium for that matter. It's just another PR spin to down size. Next they will come out and say they just got done MEGA merging the staff.
They didnt lost ¨lots of subs¨, people is just not playing the game waiting for transfers, or rerolling in another server while they wait. Mega servers will bring people back to the game.
They have lost a lot of subs and now they need to merge. I mean come on, its not like they had high pop servers to begin with, or medium for that matter. It's just another PR spin to down size. Next they will come out and say they just got done MEGA merging the staff.
They didnt lost ¨lots of subs¨, people is just not playing the game waiting for transfers, or rerolling in another server while they wait. Mega servers will bring people back to the game.
Ah, ha ha ha ha ha...
People said that about 1.2, too. You know what the XFire log-in average was when those people came back? About 5000 a day. You know what the average XFire log-in numbers are now? 1600 and dropping (1549 Friday). The evidence suggests that not only are people not coming back, regardless of patch hype, but that they're never coming back.
As for 'losts of subs' being lost:
Sales through March 31st 2012: 2,200,0000
People who could actually drop subs (removing March sales): 2,100,000
Subs remaining at same date: 1,300,000
People who weren't in trial period (removing March): 1,200,000
People who dropped subs: 900,000
900,000/2.100.000 = 43%
In 70 days. 43% of those eligible to drop their subs, dropped their subs. And that was before the 1.2 patch. After the 1.2 patch, the rate of people giving up on this game increased. So while I don't know exactly what subs will be (there are accounting issues), I can see the active player population is a fraction of what it was in January when XFire log ins were routinely over 11,000/day.
So, I don't know what game you're playing. But this game.... Subs are drying up like a summer puddle.
Also they just fired a bunch of good people from the team like the head of the community management for example,
They (EA) won't really do anything in SWTOR anymore just trying to get people back in the game but the game is and will stay the same for many and many more years to come (assuming it's stay on'air)
THings that are happening in guild wars 2 or that will happen to WOW with this fasing multiserver technologie is not even been thing of at SWTOR HQ, the force is weak with this one.
Edit : it still sadden me that they didn't even thing of waiting a couple more month to develop the group search tool before they launched because if they would have waited, they would have nailled it, at least there be still a large number of player playing it. Now people feel like they've been cheated on and they might just not come back to it. sad
They have lost a lot of subs and now they need to merge. I mean come on, its not like they had high pop servers to begin with, or medium for that matter. It's just another PR spin to down size. Next they will come out and say they just got done MEGA merging the staff.
They didnt lost ¨lots of subs¨, people is just not playing the game waiting for transfers, or rerolling in another server while they wait. Mega servers will bring people back to the game.
The game is good, but people are not playing, or transferring or rerolling, or waiting for 'mega servers' or maybe game is not worth a subscription.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
I don't think adding more people to the servers is going to solve many problems. Sure, there may be more people around in the game, but that doesn't change the "single player" focus of the gameplay mechanics. It also doesn't make the game world any less boring since there are no actual RPG elements to be found.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
This thread is a perfect example that you can feed any bullshit story to the fanbois.
if you combine the Red Mega Server, the Green Mega Server and the Yellow Mega Server you get the Super Mega-Mega Server
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT Playing: Skyrim Following: The Repopulation I want a Virtual World, not just a Game. ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
I don't think adding more people to the servers is going to solve many problems. Sure, there may be more people around in the game, but that doesn't change the "single player" focus of the gameplay mechanics. It also doesn't make the game world any less boring since there are no actual RPG elements to be found.
It would do worlds of good for what's left of the pvp community. No Wpvp anywhere was my biggest grip with swtor. You can only do some many warzones before you need to do something else. This could help with that something else. Will it be enough to get me to resub, and log in? I doubt it. Maybe if they gave me a free 30 days to check it out.
Comments
It is the same thing that DCU did, and DCU had a lot of server issues when they did it.
A creative person is motivated by the desire to achieve, not the desire to beat others.
They still would have to add more socialization to the game, but it would indeed be a good start.
This looks to be much more than a plain server merge because actual population caps are set to rise by a large degree, the existing servers had a stupidly low population cap & contributed to the population issues by forcing the spread over so many different shards.
I frankly don't give a toss for the naysayers becasue this will be good for the game even if it causes a few technical hiccups along the way, servers need a "critical mass" of players to enable warzones & flashpoints across the level spread to actually be feasible & lower wait times.
So, I see this as a popsitive move & hope it is implemented sooner rather than later, it will help any future growth of the game.
lol
This has been blown completely out of proportion, they're just raising the population cap on the servers once transfers come in as the current cap is artificially low. There wil be no "mega servers".
Does anyone here even think their game engine could handle mega numbers of players?
I'm sure bonuses were handed out to their marketing team. Well done!
Look buddy I hate to burst your bubble but i'm playing an mmo game that has around 8k-12k cap per server so to me SWToR's server pop is low for my standards.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Funcom ran the The Secret World beta events for the whole world on one virtual server located in the east coast of USA.
Given the timing of this "mega server" announcement, I'd be inclined to think that it is just "PR speak" to avoid that dreaded "server merge" phrase.
Or perhaps the BW techies have made a revolutionary technical breakthrough allowing them to offer this wonderful tech now ?
It's crystal clear that SWTOR needs player consolidation. But how to achieve that without making it sound like a server merge ?
Introduce "Mega Serverstm" !
Then the current playerbase can be "encouraged to consolidate" via server transfers, while the original 214 servers remain active. That means that any currently cancelled accounts can re-sub at any future point, and just instantly transfer to a Mega Server if they find themselves alone on their original server. So no player capital is lost, it's all there waiting for you should you decide to resub at any time in the future
That simply just isnt high population buddy.... Your tlakign 1 - 2 thousand players per server with thsoe numbers.. where games like Everquest, Rift, Aion, Tera, WoW etc... use servers with 15,000+ players.
The PvP fiasco however, is all Bioware (and Mythic, the "most experienced pvp dev team in the industry").
More to the point, do they think their small, limited, maze zones could handle mega numbers of players? More people crowded into these rat-runs will render the game unplayable.
Do you actually belive for one minute they are buying new hardware?? Condsidering they just fired 200 folks. Anybody who falls for the new tech of mega servers does not understand what it really means, and that is server merges.
There is no way that ea/bioware is buying new equipment for a game that is dying.
The only thing I could equate with "mega" server technology would be going down the Eve route. When they come back and say that server capacity has been raised to 50,000 concurrent logins, then I will believe the "mega" hype. Until then, its just spin, ie a carrot to keep people from hitting the cancel button.
Its just a pr stunt to mask server merges, lol. Its not the first game to do it either.
They HAVE TO merge their servers, but merge itself sounsd bad. So instead, they decide to go with 'now our servers can hold 2-5x more people per servers, so we are going to merge existing servers into our bigger, better and much cooler servers, which by the way wont have more people playing on them than they had in swtor first months'.
other games do it. Their current servers might as well make home for 2,3 low pop servers, so even if they end up with 1/3 of current numbers, they wont actually need better servers at all
so merge is coming, and just plain merge sounds... bad. So they instead make a fancy name for it and people get hyped over it
incredible 
They didnt lost ¨lots of subs¨, people is just not playing the game waiting for transfers, or rerolling in another server while they wait. Mega servers will bring people back to the game.
Ah, ha ha ha ha ha...
People said that about 1.2, too. You know what the XFire log-in average was when those people came back? About 5000 a day. You know what the average XFire log-in numbers are now? 1600 and dropping (1549 Friday). The evidence suggests that not only are people not coming back, regardless of patch hype, but that they're never coming back.
As for 'losts of subs' being lost:
Sales through March 31st 2012: 2,200,0000
People who could actually drop subs (removing March sales): 2,100,000
Subs remaining at same date: 1,300,000
People who weren't in trial period (removing March): 1,200,000
People who dropped subs: 900,000
900,000/2.100.000 = 43%
In 70 days. 43% of those eligible to drop their subs, dropped their subs. And that was before the 1.2 patch. After the 1.2 patch, the rate of people giving up on this game increased. So while I don't know exactly what subs will be (there are accounting issues), I can see the active player population is a fraction of what it was in January when XFire log ins were routinely over 11,000/day.
So, I don't know what game you're playing. But this game.... Subs are drying up like a summer puddle.
Also they just fired a bunch of good people from the team like the head of the community management for example,
They (EA) won't really do anything in SWTOR anymore just trying to get people back in the game but the game is and will stay the same for many and many more years to come (assuming it's stay on'air)
THings that are happening in guild wars 2 or that will happen to WOW with this fasing multiserver technologie is not even been thing of at SWTOR HQ, the force is weak with this one.
Edit : it still sadden me that they didn't even thing of waiting a couple more month to develop the group search tool before they launched because if they would have waited, they would have nailled it, at least there be still a large number of player playing it. Now people feel like they've been cheated on and they might just not come back to it. sad
Diablow 3, it sucks ...
The game is good, but people are not playing, or transferring or rerolling, or waiting for 'mega servers' or maybe game is not worth a subscription.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Mega-servers LOL!
This thread is a perfect example that you can feed any bullshit story to the fanbois.
I don't think adding more people to the servers is going to solve many problems. Sure, there may be more people around in the game, but that doesn't change the "single player" focus of the gameplay mechanics. It also doesn't make the game world any less boring since there are no actual RPG elements to be found.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
If you have never played the game or no longer intend to play the game, how could it possibly matter if others do.
if you combine the Red Mega Server, the Green Mega Server and the Yellow Mega Server you get the Super Mega-Mega Server
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
It would do worlds of good for what's left of the pvp community. No Wpvp anywhere was my biggest grip with swtor. You can only do some many warzones before you need to do something else. This could help with that something else. Will it be enough to get me to resub, and log in? I doubt it. Maybe if they gave me a free 30 days to check it out.