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BadgerSmaker
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Concept: SWG Server Mergers 2011/2012
Having recently spoken with the SWG Development team regarding the current Server Population Imbalance in SWG we're heard that although there are still no plans for any server closures or Free Character Transfers, there are a few possibilites that they would like to hear your feedback on.
The Development team are not keen on a repeat of the last Free Character Transfer service as this resulted in some servers being hugely overpopulated while some were considerably less so. With this in mind we'd like to ask your opinion on a few scenarios they are aimed at better balancing the current population across the remaining servers, and how they may effect your choice of destination server.
IMPORTANT: These are just examples and do not represent any current plans as there are none. We'd just like to know which option you like best and have filled in the server names ourselves as the Development Team have not identified any particular servers for closure. We'll then be passing on your feedback to the Dev team so that they can use it to plan out what an FCTS/Server merge may look like in future.
Here is the Q&A we had with Teesquared in February 2011 regarding the various options for FCTS/Server merger:
Questions to ask next:
Q. Will transfers from closed servers still be free after another server merge/FCTS?
Q. Could all destination servers also be given Free Transfers?
The Dev team did also mention that they would be able to use the hardware from the closed servers to significantly increase the performance and stability of the remaining servers.
In case it helps, the latest server population statistics can be viewed here: SWG Galactic Civil War and Player City Statistics - 14th of December 2010
OPTION 1:
"One to One" Server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one higher population server:
FROM >>>>> TO
* Radiant (E) >>>>> Chilastra (E)
* Sunrunner (W) >>>> Ahazi (W)
* Shadowfire (E) >>>> Eclipse (E)
* Gorath (E) >>>> Bria (W)
* Bloodfin (E) >>>> Europe-Chimaera (EU)
OPTION 2:
"Many to few" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of two higher population servers, leaving 8 servers open in total:
From:
* Radiant (E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Starsider (E) (remaining open)
To:
* Ahazi (W)
* Eclipse (E)
OPTION 3:
"Many to Many" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of any five higher population servers, leaving 8 servers open in total:
From:
* Radiant (E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Starsider (E) (remaining open)
To any of the following medium population servers:
* Ahazi (W)
* Eclipse (E)
* Chilastra (E)
* Bria (W)
* Europe-Chimaera (EU)
* Flurry (W)
* Europe-Farstar (EU)
OPTION 4:
"More to Many" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of any five higher population servers, leaving 6 servers open in total:
From:
* Radiant (E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Ahazi (W)
* Eclipse (E)
* Starsider (E) (remaining open)
To any of the following medium population servers:
* Chilastra (E)
* Bria (W)
* Europe-Chimaera (EU)
* Flurry (W)
* Europe-Farstar (EU)
Option 5
"Extreme" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of any three higher population servers, leaving 4 servers open in total:
From
* Radiant (E)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Ahazi(E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Europe-Chimaera (EU)
* Bria (W)
* Eclipse (E)
* Starsider (W) (remaining open)
To :
* Flurry (W)
* Chilastra(E)
* Europe-Farstar (EU)
* [Fourth option required to allow 8 characters to be transferred in total from servers marked for closure. Fourth option could be Starsider, Bria or Europe-Chimaera]
Feel free to reply to the following questions and we'll get your answers to the Dev team:
Q1. Which option would you prefer?
Q2. Which server would you transfer to under your preferred option?
Q3. Which servers do you think should be given an FCTS and then closed?
Q4. Are there any specific problems that you can see with any of the options above?
Q5. Do you have any thoughts on other ways that the situation could be handled?
Having recently spoken with the SWG Development team regarding the current Server Population Imbalance in SWG we're heard that although there are still no plans for any server closures or Free Character Transfers, there are a few possibilites that they would like to hear your feedback on.
The Development team are not keen on a repeat of the last Free Character Transfer service as this resulted in some servers being hugely overpopulated while some were considerably less so. With this in mind we'd like to ask your opinion on a few scenarios they are aimed at better balancing the current population across the remaining servers, and how they may effect your choice of destination server.
IMPORTANT: These are just examples and do not represent any current plans as there are none. We'd just like to know which option you like best and have filled in the server names ourselves as the Development Team have not identified any particular servers for closure. We'll then be passing on your feedback to the Dev team so that they can use it to plan out what an FCTS/Server merge may look like in future.
Here is the Q&A we had with Teesquared in February 2011 regarding the various options for FCTS/Server merger:
- If mergers mean more characters per server (up to 8) would be permitted.
ANSWER: "If we went down to 4 servers instead, players could have 2 characters on each server. We have no plans right now to increase characters per server. There is a lot involved with that option that we would need to work out first." - If mergers make cross server play more feasible.
ANSWER: "SWG will not support cross-server play regardless of number of servers we have." - If the house packup event could be run previous to, or concurrently with the server mergers.
ANSWER: "Yes. We would definitely want to do a house packup and give incoming players a chance to get some good realestate." - If server mergers allow server hardware to be consolidated, would this mean the performance issues recently faced by starsider would be eradicated?
ANSWER: "The hardware improvement impact will be on the average area load. Basically by adding more CPUs we can decrease the physical area a given server hosts. That reduces CPU and memory requirements. However, since SWG does not control player density, you will still have issues when too many players gather together on the same server. In the end though I think players would be able to appreciate the improvements." - Would less servers to maintain mean a reduction in the SWG Subscription price?
ANSWER: "Number of servers would not impact subscription price." - Would the server mergers run concurrently with a returning veteran trial?
ANSWER: "We did not do a re-entitlement with the last FCTS so I don't think it would happen for this one.... we would do a re-entitlement for house packup so that may cover it." - Would it be possible for players to FCTS off of Starsider to one of the other destination servers? Is this something you'd think of doing if demand was high enough?
ANSWER: Yes. It's definitely something we can consider doing. - Some players would prefer the option of an FCTS to a clean server, is this something you would consider?
ANSWER: No. A clean server presents many issues. We had a lot of problems when we setup TCPrime back in the day. For example, a clean server will not have the "aged" resources that our other servers have. There are other good reasons as well.
Questions to ask next:
Q. Will transfers from closed servers still be free after another server merge/FCTS?
Q. Could all destination servers also be given Free Transfers?
The Dev team did also mention that they would be able to use the hardware from the closed servers to significantly increase the performance and stability of the remaining servers.
In case it helps, the latest server population statistics can be viewed here: SWG Galactic Civil War and Player City Statistics - 14th of December 2010
OPTION 1:
"One to One" Server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one higher population server:
FROM >>>>> TO
* Radiant (E) >>>>> Chilastra (E)
* Sunrunner (W) >>>> Ahazi (W)
* Shadowfire (E) >>>> Eclipse (E)
* Gorath (E) >>>> Bria (W)
* Bloodfin (E) >>>> Europe-Chimaera (EU)
OPTION 2:
"Many to few" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of two higher population servers, leaving 8 servers open in total:
From:
* Radiant (E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Starsider (E) (remaining open)
To:
* Ahazi (W)
* Eclipse (E)
OPTION 3:
"Many to Many" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of any five higher population servers, leaving 8 servers open in total:
From:
* Radiant (E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Starsider (E) (remaining open)
To any of the following medium population servers:
* Ahazi (W)
* Eclipse (E)
* Chilastra (E)
* Bria (W)
* Europe-Chimaera (EU)
* Flurry (W)
* Europe-Farstar (EU)
OPTION 4:
"More to Many" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of any five higher population servers, leaving 6 servers open in total:
From:
* Radiant (E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Ahazi (W)
* Eclipse (E)
* Starsider (E) (remaining open)
To any of the following medium population servers:
* Chilastra (E)
* Bria (W)
* Europe-Chimaera (EU)
* Flurry (W)
* Europe-Farstar (EU)
Option 5
"Extreme" server merger.
Each server marked for closure can choose to transfer their characters via the Free Character Transfer service to one of any three higher population servers, leaving 4 servers open in total:
From
* Radiant (E)
* Shadowfire (E)
* Gorath (E)
* Bloodfin (E)
* Ahazi(E)
* Sunrunner (W)
* Europe-Chimaera (EU)
* Bria (W)
* Eclipse (E)
* Starsider (W) (remaining open)
To :
* Flurry (W)
* Chilastra(E)
* Europe-Farstar (EU)
* [Fourth option required to allow 8 characters to be transferred in total from servers marked for closure. Fourth option could be Starsider, Bria or Europe-Chimaera]
Feel free to reply to the following questions and we'll get your answers to the Dev team:
Q1. Which option would you prefer?
Q2. Which server would you transfer to under your preferred option?
Q3. Which servers do you think should be given an FCTS and then closed?
Q4. Are there any specific problems that you can see with any of the options above?
Q5. Do you have any thoughts on other ways that the situation could be handled?