The consequences of server transfers vs merging

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by SenorBeef, Jan 9, 2013.

  1. KodiakBlack

    I fully agree, my point was not that its hard, just that it represents more money and time from SOE than perhaps is apparent from our perspective, the name thing does represent future planning but I think probably is more to do with the character transfer paid service than anything else.
  2. Jex =TE=

    I'm not paying to swap servers - I already almost paid enough to make this a full priced game (I will be adding my final purchase of SC to make it up to that soon) so I don't see why I should pay just to swap a bloody server when I can do it for free on a new character. So what they are doing is punishing those that pay whilst making it a non issue for those that don't - if that's how they want to play the game, they'll get no more money from me.
    • Up x 1
  3. Jex =TE=

    The effort will be what they designed themselves, so if they made it complicated then that's their fault. It's probably using a SQL database and they probably just have to run some batch (however if you pay to subscribe, you can move around servers freely - so no it's no work, they just need to tick a box)
  4. LordMondando

    Well.. that this is no work/cost is debatable. You nonetheless raise a fair point, whether or not its cost free, it is automatable.

    however, one thing I would also note that I think SoE is failing to realize, is that people current stuck on 'below critical mass servers' and who don't simply change servers becuase they have invested SC in a character. Will not be endeared to SoE by having to pay more to transfer that character.

    Its also apparent from the recent migration to Miller, frankly the 2/3 'busy' servers, do not have that much capacity left. The choice then is a buridians *** style scenario between the other 5-6 (in each of the 3 zones) largely similar servers with no clear choice between them.

    I'm quite disappointed in SoE thinking this would solve anything, they have not thought this through sufficiently beyond 'possible new revenue stream based on demand'.
  5. Metsuro

    I'm getting sick and tired of having to explain this. You should feel bad for even suggesting server merges.

    Stop a minute and think about the issue. High pop servers contain 30-40k total accounts, medium pops some where about 20k, and low pops some where around 10k. These are the total amount of players assigned to said server. A server merger will do nothing but create an imbalance of population. They devs would have to look at active players on each faction versus the total amount of accounts.

    Once the servers merge the could contain anywhere from 50-60k player accounts on a high server. A server at any given time can ONLY have 6k total players active. By merging servers you are going to create 100 man queues. Not so bad right? Wrong. This is a free to play, with an option to pay. Those who pay get first access in the queues. Meaning if the queue is 1000 people long, I get moved to spot 1 because I pay. This will create HUGE drama between those who pay, and those who dont.

    Merging servers will NEVER be a viable option. It wont. You should stop suggesting it.


    The viable option, is to give rewards for players going to underpopulated servers and under populated factions on that server. Forcing new players to go to this server regardless of where there friends are until all current servers are with in so many %'s of each other.

    Example. Low pop server gains a 30% bonus to experience for a week or two for new players joining that server. If a certain population on the server is far lower than the others, add another 15%+ for joining that faction.

    Once that server is then in the range of others in terms of population, a player is given 1 life time transfer. Only 1 free transfer ever, so they can join their friends if they like. This is the only option, that wont ruin the game.

    Please stop, and think before posting nonsense.
  6. HadesR

    Merge or transfer either way it need's to be carefully done and maybe limited in some way .. Because if you suddenly have 20,000 players move to server A , without any thought for pop balance / faction % etc , you have the potential of causing more problems than you solve
  7. Kalmageddon

    I support the OP 100%.
    This and the changes to xp gain for kills are basically just SOE getting creative in grabbing your money.
  8. HerpTheDerp

    HAW. Them's biting words, but true.
  9. Spartan 117

    OP is dead on here SOE. You overextended by adding to many servers at launch & you are positioning yourself to lose alot of customers if you decide to offer transfers before merges.
  10. quicKsanD

    While I agree with character transfers so you can move freely around the servers to find the one that server you best I think the US East and US West only needs at maximum 2 servers per coast. I would actually say that when they have more continents release with the populations now there should only be 1 server per US coast. This would allow for bigger and better fights on all continents at all hours.

    I understand that on day one when there was overwhelming demand and that with the limited continents there was need to expand but now, I just don't think it is necessary.

    If not everyone on the West Coast go to CONNERY!!!
  11. FightingFirst

    I agree with the OP. There are too many servers that are always on low. For the EU there are about 2-3 always on medium and the rest are low. The low servers either need to be merged together Merging servers has a number of benefits:
    -New players coming to the game and seeing servers on high will subconsciously make them feel better about the games future inturn making them more likely to spend money compared to seeing most of the servers on low.
    -Big battles is what PS2 is about. Low pop count makes this less likely to happen.

    It would seem to me that the population is spread to thinly over too many servers. The added server transfer added in the new patch may anger players (if indeed you are charged every time). It may be better to offer the first server transfer as a good will gesture and then charge thereafter.

    Secondly, because of this server transfer you will, I guess, see a mass exodus of players on low populated servers to the medium populated servers. This will further exacerbate the situation on the low population servers as more people leave the server because of less people you will see two groups of people leaving:
    1) People who are willing to pay to transfer.
    2) People unwilling to transfer
    As the server population starts to dwindle as the people left unwilling to pay to transfer will find it harder and harder to find decent size battles. This will mean that in effect it may get to the situation where they will stop playing the game as they are unwilling to pay to transfer meaning loss of future revenue.

    From my viewpoint it would seem the best way forward would be merging the low pop servers into the medium pop servers so you are left with servers on a medium or high pop count. You do all this for free. Then you can offer paid server transfers for anyone who wants to move to another server. I think this is an ultimately better idea than what has been proposed in the patch as it will avoid the situation of the experience on the low pop servers getting even worse due to a dwindling player count.

    Now there may be a reason why you havent done this but maybe explaining why and showing a little transparency on the issue may alleviate some concerns of the community and let them understand your thinking.
    FF
    • Up x 3
  12. NoctD

    I play as NC on Genudine myself. I will actually be keeping my character on it... the server offers the right mix at least on the NC side, I can find a fight and play different continents and not everyone is looking for mass mayhem all the time. Tried Miller and I doubt if I want anything there long term.

    My TR on SolTech probably gets transferred. I think the server pop on Genudine is less, but the balance is more out of whack on SolTech TR for me. Too many Vanu on that server period. The dynamics just make it impossible to play TR most times except on Indar but that's also partly the choice made by others in the faction to play Indar only. It will get to a mid-highish server that I need to look for, but I'll probably avoid the top 3 busiest servers in the process.

    Server transfers will also be a pay option so only a fraction of the accounts on any server will get transferred. I think we could use some server consolidation too, maybe losing 1 server per region, but server transfers allow more choice/freedom over the fate of where we play in the end.
  13. Mylon

    If you took all of the existing population of each region (US East and US West) you could probably cram them into one server. Then we might actually see a real battle on Amerish! Just maybe.
    • Up x 1
  14. Dkamanus

    I think the least they should do is hold the transfer token for a while still. Have the 30th January patch come, let the empire showdown finish and wait to see if they get more players playing. If it doesn't happen (doubt it, since the patch is targeted towards lower end PCs), then they should hand the tokens.

    Although I think merges ARE the best way, SOE though too much ahead of its time and now has servers that are ghost towns.
  15. FateJH

    Regardless of all this, can SOE cheaply transfer TotalBiscuit's main (outfit) to Helios or SeaNanners' and Tobuscus' mains (do they have outfits?) to Waterson East? Having them scattered out like this imposes an artificial population disproportion on the given servers due to popularity (or lack of popularity) based on the leader. That affects people who are not part of the event. Additionally, they should be directly in competition like that in the first place for the event to make any sense.
  16. Wargrim

    Imho, the question with Server transfers is this:

    Do the devs want to use them as
    A: Something a player does once, and then sticks to it, or
    B: A tool for Players to actually compensate for the inevitable Player Number Fluctuations that get created by time of day, timezones, weekends and weekdays and that directly effect faction ballance.

    It seems they are going for A.

    B would require transfers to be free, and you would have to be able to do it multiple times per day so that people can gather on one server during low pop times and spread out again during high pop times. Obviously, such a system would have to reward going somewhere where your faction has few players ( relative to total pop ) and punish going somewhere where it has many players. And you would need a quick and reliably way to tell how many people are actually playing on each server, on each faction and each map. Not that Low Medium High ******** that tells you almost nothing really.

    I can see why this is a lot of work and they are not going for it, but it would be immensely helpful to get some population management going, of which there is NONE right now. And to put it bluntly, Planetside 2 sucks when the population is low. And it doesnt help that some servers have obvious faction imballances that get amplified every time the population is low.

    Every other FPS has Server hopping, and it is generally a good thing. Yes PS2 is a totally different beast, but i believe it would also benefit very much from having a server browser and the ability to change servers multiple times a day for free.



    Now, as it does not look like option B is happening, what does option A mean?

    IMHO, it means we absolutely need an option to transfer entire outfits. There is just no way you can expect an Outfit to disband, have everyone pay a transfer fee, and then reform at an other Server. Even less so if we will get Outfit "Leveling" or Outfit Stats as promised by the devs.

    If that does not happen, only players without an outfit, or those ready to give up their outfit can actually switch servers. I think that would be bad.



    If they simply put payed transfers in without addressing any of the issues / scenarios / problems described in this thread, like the great OP post, it could potentially hurt the game more than it helps.
  17. the pestimist

    Well some people might want to play on a low pop server because they have a bad pc they should optimize the game first before merging two low pop servers.
  18. axiom537

    Before they merge, maybe they should advertise...

    I see advertisements all the time on TV for other free-to-play games. I have yet to see any advertisements for planetside. Planetside already has an incredible promo video, throw that on the Sci-Fi Channel, History Channel and or the Military Channel, and funnel those new players onto the lower population servers...
  19. the pestimist

    that could work Sony already advertises there other things like ps3s and stuff why cant they advertise this game
  20. Wargrim

    I have seen plenty of PS2 advertizing on German TV channels, i guess the deal with Pro7Sat1 had to be good for something.