how about this for a merge?

ok, i'll start by saying i'm not flamebaiting or trying to cause any trouble here lol

i've recently returned to the matrix and have found my vector server horribly unpopulated.  i've heard that the other servers aren't experiencing as bad a population problem though.

it really isn't fun anymore, i try to log on about every night for an hour or two (usually 5pm usa mtn time) and on my days off, which are rotating from some weekdays to some weekends i hop on a couple times a day.

i hop hardlines and type /who, and there are rarely any more than two people (me included) in the area.  Mara C will sometimes hit 20 people.

i don't know what to do!  the 'easy' answer is to reroll on another server, but that really isn't easy, and grinding out to fifty again does not fill me with excitement.  I enjoy pvp, i enjoy having other ppl online to chat with and farm corrupteds with or whatever, but even with the truce disollution vector is pretty darn empty.  there are times when we get some 10-20 on 10-20 pvp going, but it doesn't last more than half an hour.

maybe it's time to merge.  maybe offer a character transfer for us or something.  my favorite idea is to merge all three servers and make downtown full time pvp to keep us pvpers happy, and by keeping the other districts only selective pvp the rpers and lowbies will be ok too. 

 I'm just bummed out at the lack of people!  the live event stuff is in line (if not better than)as the other servers, but even our lesig people are rarely on (khepril is an exception, i see him on all the time) but that could be due to the times i'm playing i guess.

just a suggestion, somebody cheer me up dammit lol

wow, i wasn't expecting almost-hateful posts at such a suggestion... i'm not trying to make a 'useless' post, i'm very well aware of the policy on making petitions too.  I'm trying to suggest a solution or create discussion on something i see as a real problem.

 i wasn't suggesting forcing pvp down everyone's throats, i thought that making ONLY downtown on the merged server pvp enabled and leaving the rest nonpvp.  i think it's a good compromise, the lowbies and rpers would have the other three districts to travel freely in.  i guess a nonpvp server wouldn't be that bad either, i could always just stay flagged i suppose.

the suggestion to just get more people to play is ideal, but i don't know how anyone can really make that happen.  the people hollerin for buddy keys seem to all be from everywhere but vector.

 to twaggy: i don't see that 50 ppl being online as 'packed'.  50 spread out over 4 districts... yikes that's empty to me.  remember how full it used to be in the first year?  i can't believe i'm longing for the days when we'd crash the server during live events lol, but I DO!  I'm not complaining about the game or any bugs; i think it runs pretty well.  i'm just trying to suggest a way to make it better i guess.

 i'm sure that there have been a lot of threads on this, and i think that says something.  i'm not trying to recycle old arguments and get everyone all p'd off.  i like the game; i wouldn't keep coming back to it if i didn't .  i like the community on vector as well, we had a pretty cool party to celebrate the return of my faction, and quite a few showed up.  i just don't see that kind of population when i play all the time and it's disheartening.

maybe it does have a lot to do with the times i play, but even at peak hours i don't see the population being anything but marginal.  i'm still going to keep loggin on, just wanted to see some constructive conversation on the subject.  i'll go back to getting punted by deviljohnny now :p

/edit.  took me a min to understand what taty meant about 'removing ties to the server'.  i kind of like that idea too.  choose your character to play, then choose a server to log into.  neat!

the lag issue...

yeah, i bet there would be lag for those who don't have the best puters out there, but i'm wondering what the population is that  doesn't carry at least a 256mb gcard, dualcore/amd64, and at least 2 gig memory?  what games can you play these days that don't at least suggest the above?

 i run something pretty high end, but even during the first yr anniversary when the devs/interns had a little too much fun spawning security agents i had to turn down my settings a bit.  i'm guessing lag would really only be a problem for a 'one server' scenario during massive events like that or maybe huge faction (live event) meetings.  i can deal with that, especially since i have to lower my resolution anyway just to take screenshots :/

 nautonnier does raise a rather touchy (but maybe valid) point.  this game is over 2 yrs old now.  most mmo's run their course in that first year (i.e. FAIL)... am i exagerating?  maybe it is time for us to all realize that this game is definitely back-burner for soe (see how many devs actually are still payrolled on this??).  maybe those of us that are left are the hardcore folks that will probably play till they turn it off, and they oughta get us all together while they can...

like nautonnier says; lots and lots of mmos are coming out this year and next year.  mmos are moving to the consoles (see AoC and The Agency).  some people here seem to think that there will be a miracle amount of new players drawn to this game.  its 2+yrs old!!  without any expansions and with slow storyline progression (granted, the original progression was not probable, seeing as we are only in month 8 of the original progression) there is nothing to draw new players.   i know p.r.-wise moving down to one server is bad, and will probably get bad press.  but then again, what press has this game been getting anyway? 

i'm thinking that soe's best bet at this point is to keep the players they actually have still playing.  we still play/keep coming back because we love this game/genre/art style/pvp/ rp/people we play with.  watching server populations dwindle to nothing makes them no money (and no sense to me).  i guess i'm suggesting that maybe merging us together will give us some new relationships to explore rp wise, will give welsh only one server to try and hop into (thus maybe giving us more game character interactions!) and probably make storyline management/patches etc that much easier to deal with.

 anyway, just my opinions and i'm still not trying to hurt any feelings or make anyone mad :p  I've put a lot of time into Bethlahem and would hate to see her decay into the code

Ok.
Step 1
You need to get yourself into a large faction of whatever org you wanna be, you wont get far if you ain't in an active faction. Especially on Vector. (check the vector recruiting forum for factions to join)

Step 2
Keep bugging SOE until they release the DAM buddy keys, so we can get some new players in the game.

When these steps have been completed, for a time everything will be good.

lol, i am in a faction (um, i do have a sig with my faction...), and we are one of the biggest/best zion has to offer.  one of the reasons we keep coming back is that the matrix is where we all met and we have quite a bit of fun rping our faction.  there is just hardly anyone left to rp with.  i jacked into syntax and recursion the other day.  there are a lot more ppl hanging at mara c. saying absolutely nothing to each other.  awesome.

buddy keys... lame.  the game is like 20 bucks and costs only 14 bucks or whatever to play a month.  it's cheap.  real cheap.  i'm betting most people want buddy keys to multibox to help farm corrupteds. 

Blackleaf wrote:

I considered Vector-Hostile as my original server (I'm quite a fan of open PvP servers) however the lack of population persuaded me to head over to Syntax.

Quiter.