Server Population Graphs

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Server Population Graphs

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:38 am

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Anubis
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An interesting site I found linked in one of the "queue complaint" threads on the official forums - it provides graphs of all active servers with regards to active population. Effectively, it charts the status of the server throughout the day - whether it's Full, or Standard, etc.

http://www.torstatus.net/bloodworthy/24 ... thy/24h/7d

Whilst at the moment it's more use for cringing at how busy our server is, I think it will be more useful in future for examining when the best times may be to play when the server populations have settled. If nothing else, it may be an interesting look into how the population shifts over time :)
"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

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Re: Server Population Graphs

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 10:36 am

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M.Steiner
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Didn't know of this site until you were linking it on IRC but I've added it to the useful links sticky too.
Does look like we're 1 of 2 main offenders. I still think some of that will be down to people thinking "Oh, this is the most popular server atm so I'll just create my character here" before the queues started without considering the fact that sure there will be a fuller server of people to play on but all they are doing is contributing to the load. They should have picked another. Even if a few more guilds were deployed on these 2 servers compared to some of the others they first opened Bioware could see from our rosters just how many members each of us had, who had pre-ordered and how soon they themselves would be giving us all access to the game and then consider that there'd be extra players on top of those too. So surely details like that went into their whole plan of deployment.
I don't believe they've put so much thought into staggering the release territories, copies of the game, deploying & selecting servers to place guilds on themselves, handling the amount of people they invite each wave for EGA and purposely not giving anyone prior notice as to what day they're likely to get in so they could remain flexible to not have other backup plans for when things didn't go as expected. They've clearly put a lot of thought into it all and the idea of all of this, in theory, is brilliant. Besides the queues for maybe 2 of the servers the rest have been nowhere near as bad as certain other MMO launches have ended up so their plan is already working to some degree. Who here experienced the launch of WoW? I know I did. Another good sign is that even when there has been a ridiculous queue of the reported 2hrs from one point yesterday evening the server hasn't suffered from lag issues due to it and even someone like Mech from his location were getting better latency than some of us had on a good day in post-launch WoW, on a EU server too.

Some other things to consider. It is still EGA and we haven't hit Dec 22nd yet when the grace period ends for needing to register game keys. For starters there are bound to be some people who pre-ordered and maybe cancelled since but decided to use that up but are not going to bother subbing when it comes to putting their hands in their pockets for whatever reason. Server loads will start to go down and in turn so will the queues. Then there's the fact that it's coming up to Christmas and there's a 50/50 chance of this helping the situation. Cos whilst some will ofc use that time to get some more gametime in, others will take time away to spend their time with their families and/or do other things.
Some people will reroll to another server. Let those who don't have a guild full of people do that.
Also at release when lots of day1 buyers drop in if we're still seeing some queues then they'd have to be stupid to create characters on the servers in question unless they really had to. When we get to this stage I would like to hope that Bioware will alter the caps for each of the servers to what they need to be to remain smooth & accessible. I haven't been expected them to do that yet because they haven't finished inviting people and we haven't gotten to launch stage yet where they'll clearly have a better idea what the caps need to be at. No point doing it before they've finished imo. And I also don't expect them to say something like this prior to them doing it either otherwise people would continue to create characters there even more.

So. I'm not a positive thinker IRL but I do still have faith in them and am trying to remain positive for us as I said on IRC. Just think that we should have a little patience for now as frustrating as it may be and hopefully this time next week things will be hugely improved for the better. :)
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Re: Server Population Graphs

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:01 pm

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Zephir
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I think BioWare are actually being pretty smart right now and know exactly what they are doing.

Right now servers are not experiencing typical usage patterns, many people are playing many more hours than normal, and they are deliberately managing server populations to ensure that once things settle into a normal usage pattern the servers will have healthy population levels.

They are slowly increasing the server caps, and slowly adding new servers. They clearly have a lot of servers ready for the 20th because the other day a large number of offline servers showed up in the sever list.

The one big issue though is they have no grace period when you get disconnected, which is a real deal breaker if you are in a group doing warzones or operations. They really need to allow you to reconnect without queuing for a short time after a disconnect.

Oh and at least I am experiencing some benefit from the guild choosing a euro server, as I'm in the US I miss the worst of the queues on our server :p

Zeph
"You're scared of mice and spiders, but oh-so-much greater is your fear that one day the two species will cross-breed to form an all-powerful race of mice-spiders who will immobilize human beings in giant webs in order to steal cheese." - Spaced (1999)

Re: Server Population Graphs

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:08 pm

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M.Steiner
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"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Re: Server Population Graphs

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:12 pm

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Anubis
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For the record I wasn't posting this as a means of complaint against the queues. Just thought it provided interesting stats that may be of interest to us in the long run - particularly if we come to need to be planning times for group efforts.
"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Forever an eXile and proud of it!

Re: Server Population Graphs

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:45 pm

Lee
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this isnt good to hear, i heard you mention queues before - but heavy waits and no grace for d/c !
hope they are just not bumping the server cap up enough to match all the guild pre-orders they chucked in one pot. (i'll only add to it)
Eeks.

Re: Server Population Graphs

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 6:25 pm

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Ash
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Not sure on the grace for disconnects as I reconnected instantly when i d/ced the other day,
maybe because my character was still classed as logged in or i was just lucky.

:p
Ash
The quiet one in the corner

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