---

Originally posted by Biggus99
I logged close to 40 hours in 3 days myself.  Pretty sad that I only made it to level 15 on my Bounty Hunter.  Damn, I level slow.  

---

I am really curious how many servers they will have for the final testing weekend. I am going to assume like 50, lol. They might have more then they will at launch since this stress test may have more then launch numbers intially are cause of the rolled out headstart,ect.  I am pretty sure SWTOR fits more players into a server then the average MMO though. If I had to guess WoW is in the 2-2.5k range, Rift is in the 1-1.5k range, and SWTOR would be in the 4-5k range.

Originally posted by Celcius

I am really curious how many servers they will have for the final testing weekend. I am going to assume like 50, lol. They might have more then they will at launch since this stress test may have more then launch numbers intially are cause of the rolled out headstart,ect.  I am pretty sure SWTOR fits more players into a server then the average MMO though. If I had to guess WoW is in the 2-2.5k range, Rift is in the 1-1.5k range, and SWTOR would be in the 4-5k range.

Well, they will have a big server farm, thats for sure, but it would be madness to buy all that extra expensive hardware just for the beta weekend/first week or so until numbers settle down and spread out across different zones

If they are smart they will have a scalable solution so they can rent servers and bandwidth in the same DataCentre on the fly to use if the demand outstrips their capacity. This means the people playing the beta dont get put off by a bad experience when the servers get overloaded and they can then get all the extra hardware etc in place for launch. 

lol dude there over 800,000 pre orders in the us for box copies alone. Thats not counting digital which may match the box copies plus eurpoe. This game is gonna have 3 million or more players logging in when it goes live. 

Thats just the way it is. They have all there servers they have cause they may need them. Sure i dont expect them to end up at wow numbers or anywhere near them at start. That said i could see 5 million users the first month. 

just saying the servers they have are necessary.

its not like they have 100 servers up they didnt. it was probably less then 20. my gf played a few hrs and i playe her beta even more then her. That and most servers were at red level not green or low they were all red. So servers they had out were full up. 

90 days after launch and u best believe they will be merging servers

Originally posted by dirtyside

90 days after launch and u best believe they will be merging servers

Of Course. There is massive interest in SWTOR and afer 3 months, people will have decided if they like it or not, and some will leave. This means server numbers will decline.

The sheer numbers of people involved and the large amount of servers they will initially have at launch makes merges after a few months inevitable. I actually welcome this. Its when companies start doing server merges every 6 months or so you have to get worried!

Originally posted by arieste

Originally posted by Robsolf

 you're in instances 96% of the time.

First of all - i get you're being sarcastic, so my comments aren't made at you.

 I find it increasingly amusing how people who generally don't understand instancing continually complain about it's very presence.  I mean, instancing can be used poorly, but to say that the very concept is bad is bordering on idiotic.

 Are these people really picturing that they'll log into SWTOR and have the entire 1 million+ population of the game standing in front of the same NPC on one massive world-instance?  And if that happens and the game somehow doesn't crash, do they think it'll actually be "fun" to play the game with 1,000,000 other characters making it absolutely impossible to see anything?

 Instancing is about population control and providing the player with the designed experience.  You may be in an instance close to 100% of the time in TOR, but it's barely visible unless you specifically look for it.  I didn't even know that all the shared zones were instanced for my like first 15 levels of play.

It would be nice if sharding could be avoided.  But yeah... this game would be a nightmare without it, especialy if clipping was turned on...

But I was (and they are usually)talking about personal/group instances.

Originally posted by Robsolf

Originally posted by Malir

Originally posted by Leethe

Originally posted by BarCrow

Originally posted by Robsolf

*snip*

If you're in instances 96% of the time how crowded can it be?

That was not my experience.

He was being sarcastic.

I guess some people DO drink the whole gallon of spoiled milk.  

Just thought I'd lay out the troll talking points in advance, so that they don't have to.

The fact you dismiss anyone who doesn't like the game as a troll speaks volumes.

I have no doube it will do well. WoW did and does very well to this day.

Originally posted by stragen001

Originally posted by dirtyside

90 days after launch and u best believe they will be merging servers

Of Course. There is massive interest in SWTOR and afer 3 months, people will have decided if they like it or not, and some will leave. This means server numbers will decline.

The sheer numbers of people involved and the large amount of servers they will initially have at launch makes merges after a few months inevitable. I actually welcome this. Its when companies start doing server merges every 6 months or so you have to get worried!

Yep server merges are pretty much inevitable in MMOs at this point. I would say that some of that is the fault of the developers for putting out too many servers initially, but the fact is that hype generates a ton of sales and the MMO genre just doesn't have the numbers playing it or the room for growth that it used to. It is possible SWTOR will suprise us though as they will probably attract new people to the genre as well. I am sure there will be a slight drop (maybe simular to Rift's after a few months) and then a steady increase in subs over time. The thing is that a slight drop when a game sells like 4-5million in the first month does not even matter. Hell, compared to other MMOs out there a 50% drop at that point does not matter! 

As long as they keep up with content updates I have no doubt the game will be a huge success, even if it sticks with 2-4million active subs. That is plenty. WoW was a fluke and will never happen again. I would be shocked if any MMO broke 5 million besides WoW at this point. Hell, WoW will be down to under 5 million in the next 2 years at the rate they are bleeding subs.

All these numbers are also based on launch in only US and EU territories, so that is another factor entirely. (One of the reasons WoW has always had so many subs is because of the number of regions it is available in compared to other MMOs)

one thing no one has pointed out.. another BIG number... lets say between last weekend beta and this weekend they have had 150,000 DIFFERENT people in the beta.. does matter how long they played just as long as they loged in... 100,000 time 20 gigs of install files.. thats well over 3 terabytes (3,000,000 megabytes.. or close to 900,000 mp3's that if listen to one asfter another would last roughly 333 DAYS of 24 hours music) of data sent from them to 'us' and my friend got in last weekend (i was in about a month ago) and even downloading at 'prime' times never had any bandwidth problems as far as downloading goes.. had his download speed maxed the whole time.. (and btw at 1.5 MEGABYTES/sec it would still take over 4 hours to install)

Originally posted by Dionysus187

I guess some people DO drink the whole gallon of spoiled milk.  

Just thought I'd lay out the troll talking points in advance, so that they don't have to.

The fact you dismiss anyone who doesn't like the game as a troll speaks volumes.

I have no doube it will do well. WoW did and does very well to this day.

Nope, I just dismiss points that aren't true.  There are plenty of legit criticisms to level at the game.  Just that, the ones I mentioned, the ones most often used, aren't among them.

Originally posted by Darkane42

one thing no one has pointed out.. another BIG number... lets say between last weekend beta and this weekend they have had 150,000 DIFFERENT people in the beta.. does matter how long they played just as long as they loged in... 100,000 time 20 gigs of install files.. thats well over 3 terabytes (3,000,000 megabytes.. or close to 900,000 mp3's that if listen to one asfter another would last roughly 333 DAYS of 24 hours music) of data sent from them to 'us' and my friend got in last weekend (i was in about a month ago) and even downloading at 'prime' times never had any bandwidth problems as far as downloading goes.. had his download speed maxed the whole time.. (and btw at 1.5 MEGABYTES/sec it would still take over 4 hours to install)

How much is that in porn numbers?  ;)

Originally posted by arieste

 

If you've played Rift, the game has about the same pace as Rift assuming you actually read and do all the quests in Rift instead of doing dynamic events to level.  

 

It's definitely a slower paced levelling design than Rift.  I'm not the best judge of this because I level pretty slowly due to being a bit more into exploration and crafting, but I do know pace, and I can say without a doubt that the Rift levelling pace far exceeds the levelling pace in SWTOR.  Obviously, the powerlevellers among us will still blow through the content by skipping the dialogue and all that.  

I'm sure people will complain(they always do) about the leveling pace and it will be adjusted to quell the constant whining.

Personally i hope its a slow leveling pace so that you can focus more on the story instead of worrying about how much xp you need per hour to make your epeen bigger than everyone elses.

Originally posted by nerovipus32

I'm sure people will complain(they always do) about the leveling pace and it will be adjusted to quell the constant whining.

Personally i hope its a slow leveling pace so that you can focus more on the story instead of worrying about how much xp you need per hour to make your epeen bigger than everyone elses.

I hope it stays slow too.  It was a pace very conducive to letting the story played out, with just the right mixture of travel, exploration possibilities, solo and group quests.  I just hope they don't dumb it down like WoW did and basically make the levelling process lightning-fast and completely solo.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't surprise me if they as they raise the level cap.  

---

Originally posted by Celcius



Originally posted by stragen001

---

Originally posted by dirtyside

90 days after launch and u best believe they will be merging servers



Of Course. There is massive interest in SWTOR and afer 3 months, people will have decided if they like it or not, and some will leave. This means server numbers will decline.
The sheer numbers of people involved and the large amount of servers they will initially have at launch makes merges after a few months inevitable. I actually welcome this. Its when companies start doing server merges every 6 months or so you have to get worried!





Yep server merges are pretty much inevitable in MMOs at this point. I would say that some of that is the fault of the developers for putting out too many servers initially, but the fact is that hype generates a ton of sales and the MMO genre just doesn't have the numbers playing it or the room for growth that it used to. It is possible SWTOR will suprise us though as they will probably attract new people to the genre as well. I am sure there will be a slight drop (maybe simular to Rift's after a few months) and then a steady increase in subs over time. The thing is that a slight drop when a game sells like 4-5million in the first month does not even matter. Hell, compared to other MMOs out there a 50% drop at that point does not matter! 
As long as they keep up with content updates I have no doubt the game will be a huge success, even if it sticks with 2-4million active subs. That is plenty. WoW was a fluke and will never happen again. I would be shocked if any MMO broke 5 million besides WoW at this point. Hell, WoW will be down to under 5 million in the next 2 years at the rate they are bleeding subs.

---

---

---

Originally posted by Celcius
All these numbers are also based on launch in only US and EU territories, so that is another factor entirely. (One of the reasons WoW has always had so many subs is because of the number of regions it is available in compared to other MMOs)

---

 
Yeah, I havent got the numbers but a large % of WOWs subs come from China/The East
 
 

I had a Beta invite from last weekend and an upcoming one. I didnt set foot in SWTOR. Was too busy playing Skyrim. :)

Originally posted by stragen001

 

---

Originally posted by Celcius



Originally posted by stragen001

---

Originally posted by dirtyside

90 days after launch and u best believe they will be merging servers



Of Course. There is massive interest in SWTOR and afer 3 months, people will have decided if they like it or not, and some will leave. This means server numbers will decline.
The sheer numbers of people involved and the large amount of servers they will initially have at launch makes merges after a few months inevitable. I actually welcome this. Its when companies start doing server merges every 6 months or so you have to get worried!





Yep server merges are pretty much inevitable in MMOs at this point. I would say that some of that is the fault of the developers for putting out too many servers initially, but the fact is that hype generates a ton of sales and the MMO genre just doesn't have the numbers playing it or the room for growth that it used to. It is possible SWTOR will suprise us though as they will probably attract new people to the genre as well. I am sure there will be a slight drop (maybe simular to Rift's after a few months) and then a steady increase in subs over time. The thing is that a slight drop when a game sells like 4-5million in the first month does not even matter. Hell, compared to other MMOs out there a 50% drop at that point does not matter! 
As long as they keep up with content updates I have no doubt the game will be a huge success, even if it sticks with 2-4million active subs. That is plenty. WoW was a fluke and will never happen again. I would be shocked if any MMO broke 5 million besides WoW at this point. Hell, WoW will be down to under 5 million in the next 2 years at the rate they are bleeding subs.

---

---

 
Yup SWTOR has probably already broken even based on Box sales alone, and I read somewhere that it only needs 1mil subs to be "very profitable" 
 
There will be a drop after the free 30 days, but there always is with any MMO, and once the craziness of launch has settled down they will end up with a good number of subs. Like you said. Even if 50% of people that buy the game dont sub, that still like 2.5mil, which most MMOs would die for!
 
 

 

 

---

Originally posted by Celcius
All these numbers are also based on launch in only US and EU territories, so that is another factor entirely. (One of the reasons WoW has always had so many subs is because of the number of regions it is available in compared to other MMOs)

---

 

 
Yeah, I havent got the numbers but a large % of WOWs subs come from China/The East
 
 

I don't think we'll see the success on the scale of WoW ever again . WoW was successful for a lot of different reason. It could be run on the average pc and it also came along at the exact same time broadband became widly available for the first time . It was also very good at the begining . StarWars has already beaten records set by WoW for pre-orders 7 years ago so in one respect its already bigger than Warcraft . Of course there will be server merges but it wont be in this game they will be in Warcraft because theres no way it will be able to maintain its current numbers next year in the face of TOR and other games to be released and a huge mistake of an expansion in Panda land . Warcrafts a game on the slide now and its loses next year are going to dwarf the 1.7 million that have already left .

Originally posted by Quesa

Lol, not even close.  It's not even in the same ballpark.  In fact, to say "close" would be insulting the definition of "close.

To me it's very simple. If the majority of people are saying the same, then I tend to believe the impressions of that majority.

If it happens to be that a wellknown hater/critic of a game is claiming something about gameplay of that said game that is in contrast to the impressions of the majority, I won't believe that person without an un-pohotoshopped screenshot to prove it.

Seen haters/critics claiming all kinds of stuff about the game in the course of the past year or 2, of which practically none of it proved to be true.

Please do not describe beta experiences. There is still an NDA in effect for SWTOR.