Im up to Taris and havent been in a zone instance yet that wasnt full, with multiple instances. And before people whinge about instances, it stops kill spots from getting overcrowded, but you can all still chat to each other in general and LFG for quests.
Heaps of groups going for heroic quests and flashpoints. You cant even go 5 seconds without 'Y Class LFG for X quest'.
So not sure what server or area you are playing in, but I've had to opposite experience.
I have been loving the game and so as my entire Guild, today we went for a world boss kill in Taris, i see loads of people the chat is always with lots of requests, the game is really immersive, the classes are amazing, i dont see any future mmo been half as good
AoC has exactly the same thing but once the population balanced out (aka left) I think everyone is pretty much in the same zone / instance. at launch it was really confusing when a friend would tell me he is in a dungeon and I was standing in the exact same spot. Both of us yelling that each other is lost and a complete dumb arse. Then someone in chat told us there were multiple instances. First time I have seen it.
Its not ideal but I have no idea how they would do it otherwise. Indy games like EvE and Fallen Earth get away with one playfield for the entire planet. If you have 1+ million people logging on then its physically impossible to have everyone in the same place. I am massive fan of sandbox and one global area but I didn't buy Star Wars for that. I am happy to run through it and have another dose of the universe in a MMO format.
if you don't want crowds don't play mmo's, one of the M's stands for massively.
the cities are dead, the cantinas are ghost towns you'd be lucky to see 20 people in your zones..way to kill the feeling of playing in a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game bioware. ive never seen such static npc's in my life.
I really cant understand why would you pay 15 dollars a month to play a game alone.
The challenge and fun of an MMO are all the thing that peope bring into the game.
Err, it's quite a leap to go from "don't want the massive crowds" to "wants to play alone".....
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Just got finished from a huge massive fight at the wall on dromund kaas. Lots of people working with each other to take down guards and elites. We were able to finish four quests alone in that one area and there was many people coming in and out during the many hours it took to complete it. Also met new people to add to my friends list. Not a massive multiplayer game my aching *ss!
The problem with WoW inspired MMORPGs (if you can call them that) is the fact that they are designed to discourage player-to-player interaction. Not only you dont need other players becsuse of tge core design of the mmorpg but you actually you dont even want them around you. People with little mmorpg experience (post 2004) will shrug and will never understand "what is the big deal?" and the other crowd should be more open minded and remember they are not playing a real mmorpg so just accept it. Even a simple task like trading doesnt require player-to-playet interaction... thanks to the auction house.
Just enjoy the game for what it is... a single player game experience with a 20% multiplayrt feature. But never "massive".
One thing I like about SWTOR is how the game is constantly encouraging you to team up with other players. Not only do you get social points for doing soloable content with others, but there's loads of group content scattered around the zones. And since there's so far always been plenty of players around everywhere it's never taken more than a few minutes to get a full group.
Here is aomething nice about the instances, I just want to say I also felt disappointed with the instancing until I realized it really adds to the experience. Just yesterday I was in dark temple in an elite mission with four other ppl and it would be crap if there were 400 ppl doing it at the same time it just wouldn't feel epic. Also at least on niman eu ppl are always talking on general.
I must really say the world never feels.empty to me, even in cities there is so much going on with npcs and players it does really feel alive.
My indicator shows usually up to 40 people in 1 instance. That deffinately doesn't feel massive.
For example Nar Shaddaa, the zone is huge, compared to any zone in WoW for example, but 40 people at the same time is max? Please this 2011 MMO, why give huge and empty world? I enjoy the fact that the areas are this big, but I rarely see people, it is very rare that I see someone doing quest near me, I understand they want to give you the feeling, like you are the only one given this epic mission, and you should feel, that you are saving Jawas along with 20 other people. I do want to have a feeling that the quest is for me, not farm quest that everyone does, but not for that price... I sure hope that GW2 will fix this, atleast they said they are adressing this.
Anyway, I would rather have 80 people at the planet, than have 2 planets with 40.
Maybe i see only 40 people, because of the bigger sith population, for exmaple there ar 200 sith in each instance, so they have to divide republic population into two isntances as well?
Either way it sucks balls, I hope they adress this problem.
BTW this means also they don't care about open world pvp, no capture town or zone control, since there are two instances that have to be the same.
Maybe this is alright for questing and leveling, but sucks for pvp
Have you guys seen the size of planets / zones? i don't expect to see people everywhere while running around in Balmora and Coruscant. It would be unrealsitic to expect to see a lot of people seeing how many planets there are and sheer size of them. Population is divided a lot however in games like Rift it was easier to fill zones because of small world size.
How many servers SWTOR will launch with on release?
ShredderSE - Umm how many do they need? Maybe 6. US, EU, Asian, France, German and Russian. Subs will be so low there is no need for more Snoocky-How many servers? The first 3 months a lot...after that 2 i guess, one for PVE and 1 for PVP...
Thorbrand - SWTOR doesn't have longevity at all. Might be one of the shortest lived MMOs.
There are a lot of voices on the forums asking for instanced maps to have their player cap raised especially in social hubs. Bioware is currently tweaking server limits (upwards) but only as solid data comes in.
For me though it's the zone caps that are the issue. I would like to see more so social areas can seem busier. Pvp'rs also would like to see higher caps in contested areas.
Aside of this there is also the upside. Once in game you always have the same quality of experience. You do not suffer from camped areas and regional lag is minimal.
It simply is just spread out a little too thin atm.
This is simply yet another little morsel for the haters to muckle onto for dear life and beat into the ground like it makes the game as terrible as they apparently want to represent it as being... In reality it's not nearly as bad as people claim, and as much as they might want everyone to think they would take the spawn camping, standing in line for quests and atrocious lag with the population rather than have that satanic, anti-massively abberation called instancing are full of it. The reality is, 100 people in a zone is more than enough to make it "feel" populated without making it overly taxing on the servers and the people playing in the zone. I am all for open worlds and no boundaries, but I'd rather have a the caps than all the irritation that comes with rampant overpopulation.
------------------------- "Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
i dont want crowds. hell i dont even want swtor to be an mmo or a mutliplayer at all.
i wanted kotor 3 haha so i play like a single player. chats turned off. i dont do dungeons. i do quests with my companion. and play on the lowest populated server.
i used to be an mmo player like you, then i took a wowclone to the knee.... over a dozen times!!!!!!!!!!!!
My indicator shows usually up to 40 people in 1 instance. That deffinately doesn't feel massive.
Anyway, I would rather have 80 people at the planet, than have 2 planets with 40.
They dont have two planets with 40. They have one or more at the cap (100 in low level planets, much higher in the final planets), and one at 40, which is the new instance that you are in. You can change over to another one once every 30 mins if you are solo, or if you are grouped with someone in the other instance.
Something else people dont realise is that these low caps are for the small starter planets. The caps get bigger as you move to bigger planets. Its pretty well executed.
When I am in a instance at the player cap, I cant really quest anywhere without seeing other players killing the same mobs or going for the same objective nodes. If the caps were any higher it would be heaps of people whining that they cant complete quests.
I dont need to see a billion jedi or sith running around killing the same mobs as me. I just need there to be other people around when I want to do group content. And there is.
It's hilarious that people would rather play with 500 other toons trying to kill the same 10 soldiers than have a playable game.
That's the point, game should be designed to accomodate 500 other "players" to provide enough content for everyone to find something appropriate to kill.
Currently I'm in Lineage 2's new F2P expansion and there is literally hundreds of people in every killing ground, never seen anything like it, and while it can be challenging at times to find kills, its not impossible, takes a bit of work and skill and it hasn't really impeded my character advancement in anyway. (Level 55 in my first 6 days of fairly casual playing)
In the long run it will benefit the game as we'll have hundreds if not thousands of players able to participate in the end game castle sieges which is what its all about in this MMO.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Personally i feel the game was rushed for christmas and released premature. but thats my opinion.
im not the type who rushes to max level or anything, but everytime im about to engage a enemy somone else picks it off and takes it, starts to get a tad bit annoying to me. and the social hubs are give and take, its great to have soo many people. But the take is... well ill explain it this way Stormwind Peak hours.
Stealing mobs is just bad ettique.. I've done this before just because I'm speeding through a certain area...
However I do make a concious effort not to steal others mobs, not too hard when thing attack in gangs alot..
Some people are prob just beind dicks tho or honestly do not know.. MMO Ettique (When it comes to mobs in open world and what not)
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
It's hilarious that people would rather play with 500 other toons trying to kill the same 10 soldiers than have a playable game.
That's the point, game should be designed to accomodate 500 other "players" to provide enough content for everyone to find something appropriate to kill.
Currently I'm in Lineage 2's new F2P expansion and there is literally hundreds of people in every killing ground, never seen anything like it, and while it can be challenging at times to find kills, its not impossible, takes a bit of work and skill and it hasn't really impeded my character advancement in anyway. (Level 55 in my first 6 days of fairly casual playing)
In the long run it will benefit the game as we'll have hundreds if not thousands of players able to participate in the end game castle sieges which is what its all about in this MMO.
Well there are other problems like Sieges lag like hell, and ppl can just fill the floor with 1 adena piles and lag the entire server during sieges. So there are benefits to being instanced.
It's hilarious that people would rather play with 500 other toons trying to kill the same 10 soldiers than have a playable game.
That's the point, game should be designed to accomodate 500 other "players" to provide enough content for everyone to find something appropriate to kill.
Currently I'm in Lineage 2's new F2P expansion and there is literally hundreds of people in every killing ground, never seen anything like it, and while it can be challenging at times to find kills, its not impossible, takes a bit of work and skill and it hasn't really impeded my character advancement in anyway. (Level 55 in my first 6 days of fairly casual playing)
In the long run it will benefit the game as we'll have hundreds if not thousands of players able to participate in the end game castle sieges which is what its all about in this MMO.
Well there are other problems like Sieges lag like hell, and ppl can just fill the floor with 1 adena piles and lag the entire server during sieges. So there are benefits to being instanced.
Well true, siege lag is an issue which needs to be addressed when possible, though L2 was alway pretty good in this area even years ago. Lagging the server with adena is more of a mgmt issue, cheaters should have been tracked down and punished with removal, but NCSoft's never been too good in this area.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Comments
Im up to Taris and havent been in a zone instance yet that wasnt full, with multiple instances. And before people whinge about instances, it stops kill spots from getting overcrowded, but you can all still chat to each other in general and LFG for quests.
Heaps of groups going for heroic quests and flashpoints. You cant even go 5 seconds without 'Y Class LFG for X quest'.
So not sure what server or area you are playing in, but I've had to opposite experience.
I have been loving the game and so as my entire Guild, today we went for a world boss kill in Taris, i see loads of people the chat is always with lots of requests, the game is really immersive, the classes are amazing, i dont see any future mmo been half as good
AoC has exactly the same thing but once the population balanced out (aka left) I think everyone is pretty much in the same zone / instance. at launch it was really confusing when a friend would tell me he is in a dungeon and I was standing in the exact same spot. Both of us yelling that each other is lost and a complete dumb arse. Then someone in chat told us there were multiple instances. First time I have seen it.
Its not ideal but I have no idea how they would do it otherwise. Indy games like EvE and Fallen Earth get away with one playfield for the entire planet. If you have 1+ million people logging on then its physically impossible to have everyone in the same place. I am massive fan of sandbox and one global area but I didn't buy Star Wars for that. I am happy to run through it and have another dose of the universe in a MMO format.
Err, it's quite a leap to go from "don't want the massive crowds" to "wants to play alone".....
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
elites. We were able to finish four quests alone in that one area and there was many people coming in and out during the many hours it took to complete it. Also met new people to add to my friends list. Not a massive multiplayer game my aching *ss!
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Just enjoy the game for what it is... a single player game experience with a 20% multiplayrt feature. But never "massive".
One thing I like about SWTOR is how the game is constantly encouraging you to team up with other players. Not only do you get social points for doing soloable content with others, but there's loads of group content scattered around the zones. And since there's so far always been plenty of players around everywhere it's never taken more than a few minutes to get a full group.
I must really say the world never feels.empty to me, even in cities there is so much going on with npcs and players it does really feel alive.
My indicator shows usually up to 40 people in 1 instance. That deffinately doesn't feel massive.
For example Nar Shaddaa, the zone is huge, compared to any zone in WoW for example, but 40 people at the same time is max? Please this 2011 MMO, why give huge and empty world? I enjoy the fact that the areas are this big, but I rarely see people, it is very rare that I see someone doing quest near me, I understand they want to give you the feeling, like you are the only one given this epic mission, and you should feel, that you are saving Jawas along with 20 other people. I do want to have a feeling that the quest is for me, not farm quest that everyone does, but not for that price... I sure hope that GW2 will fix this, atleast they said they are adressing this.
Anyway, I would rather have 80 people at the planet, than have 2 planets with 40.
I have no idea what some of you people are talking about since I see other people everywhere I go.
Maybe i see only 40 people, because of the bigger sith population, for exmaple there ar 200 sith in each instance, so they have to divide republic population into two isntances as well?
Either way it sucks balls, I hope they adress this problem.
BTW this means also they don't care about open world pvp, no capture town or zone control, since there are two instances that have to be the same.
Maybe this is alright for questing and leveling, but sucks for pvp
Have you guys seen the size of planets / zones? i don't expect to see people everywhere while running around in Balmora and Coruscant. It would be unrealsitic to expect to see a lot of people seeing how many planets there are and sheer size of them. Population is divided a lot however in games like Rift it was easier to fill zones because of small world size.
How many servers SWTOR will launch with on release?
ShredderSE - Umm how many do they need? Maybe 6.
US, EU, Asian, France, German and Russian.
Subs will be so low there is no need for more
Snoocky-How many servers?
The first 3 months a lot...after that 2 i guess, one for PVE and 1 for PVP...
Thorbrand - SWTOR doesn't have longevity at all. Might be one of the shortest lived MMOs.
There are a lot of voices on the forums asking for instanced maps to have their player cap raised especially in social hubs. Bioware is currently tweaking server limits (upwards) but only as solid data comes in.
For me though it's the zone caps that are the issue. I would like to see more so social areas can seem busier. Pvp'rs also would like to see higher caps in contested areas.
Aside of this there is also the upside. Once in game you always have the same quality of experience. You do not suffer from camped areas and regional lag is minimal.
It simply is just spread out a little too thin atm.
You stay sassy!
^^ this.
This is simply yet another little morsel for the haters to muckle onto for dear life and beat into the ground like it makes the game as terrible as they apparently want to represent it as being... In reality it's not nearly as bad as people claim, and as much as they might want everyone to think they would take the spawn camping, standing in line for quests and atrocious lag with the population rather than have that satanic, anti-massively abberation called instancing are full of it. The reality is, 100 people in a zone is more than enough to make it "feel" populated without making it overly taxing on the servers and the people playing in the zone. I am all for open worlds and no boundaries, but I'd rather have a the caps than all the irritation that comes with rampant overpopulation.
-------------------------
"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
Massive Moaning Opportunity
i dont want crowds. hell i dont even want swtor to be an mmo or a mutliplayer at all.
i wanted kotor 3 haha so i play like a single player. chats turned off. i dont do dungeons. i do quests with my companion. and play on the lowest populated server.
i used to be an mmo player like you, then i took a wowclone to the knee.... over a dozen times!!!!!!!!!!!!
bwahaha! i like that.
They dont have two planets with 40. They have one or more at the cap (100 in low level planets, much higher in the final planets), and one at 40, which is the new instance that you are in. You can change over to another one once every 30 mins if you are solo, or if you are grouped with someone in the other instance.
Something else people dont realise is that these low caps are for the small starter planets. The caps get bigger as you move to bigger planets. Its pretty well executed.
When I am in a instance at the player cap, I cant really quest anywhere without seeing other players killing the same mobs or going for the same objective nodes. If the caps were any higher it would be heaps of people whining that they cant complete quests.
I dont need to see a billion jedi or sith running around killing the same mobs as me. I just need there to be other people around when I want to do group content. And there is.
It's hilarious that people would rather play with 500 other toons trying to kill the same 10 soldiers than have a playable game.
yah - i wouldn't mind playing with 500 other players. that's the key word right there: with.
That's the point, game should be designed to accomodate 500 other "players" to provide enough content for everyone to find something appropriate to kill.
Currently I'm in Lineage 2's new F2P expansion and there is literally hundreds of people in every killing ground, never seen anything like it, and while it can be challenging at times to find kills, its not impossible, takes a bit of work and skill and it hasn't really impeded my character advancement in anyway. (Level 55 in my first 6 days of fairly casual playing)
In the long run it will benefit the game as we'll have hundreds if not thousands of players able to participate in the end game castle sieges which is what its all about in this MMO.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Stealing mobs is just bad ettique.. I've done this before just because I'm speeding through a certain area...
However I do make a concious effort not to steal others mobs, not too hard when thing attack in gangs alot..
Some people are prob just beind dicks tho or honestly do not know.. MMO Ettique (When it comes to mobs in open world and what not)
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
Well there are other problems like Sieges lag like hell, and ppl can just fill the floor with 1 adena piles and lag the entire server during sieges. So there are benefits to being instanced.
Well true, siege lag is an issue which needs to be addressed when possible, though L2 was alway pretty good in this area even years ago. Lagging the server with adena is more of a mgmt issue, cheaters should have been tracked down and punished with removal, but NCSoft's never been too good in this area.
We'll see how it goes this time around.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon