The early access was/wasnt revealed today thread

[zealous]

They're about to hit 750,000 in just the US. Add in the EU which would be about the same, then add digital. Yeah it's a LOT more than a few hundred thousand.

I'm guessing 1,8kk would be a conservative estimate.

[Chrysia]

frankly, tiering pre-orders is needlessly complicating a simple situation.I don't recall other MMO's doing that. they have what, a few hundred thousand pre-orders though?

If they get a good idea of how many people they need to accomodate for the early access, it's not unreasonable to have adequate space; but knowing how much space is adequate is the tricky part. if they don't know that one server shard can only keep 100,000 players, and they try to cram 600,000 people on it, it could be disasterous.

I'm thinking..... maybe square it off, first half day 5, the rest on day 3. they'll probably double the number of available shards in the gap between 5 and 3 and likely again from 3 and d-day. I can't imagine them giving any less than 3 days to anyone.

\

The purpose of the staggering isn't to save their hardware, it's to keep the servers from having to generate hundreds of instances of the starter planets.

[Zarasthura]

frankly, tiering pre-orders is needlessly complicating a simple situation.I don't recall other MMO's doing that. they have what, a few hundred thousand pre-orders though?

If they get a good idea of how many people they need to accomodate for the early access, it's not unreasonable to have adequate space; but knowing how much space is adequate is the tricky part. if they don't know that one server shard can only keep 100,000 players, and they try to cram 600,000 people on it, it could be disasterous.

I'm thinking..... maybe square it off, first half day 5, the rest on day 3. they'll probably double the number of available shards in the gap between 5 and 3 and likely again from 3 and d-day. I can't imagine them giving any less than 3 days to anyone.

the 752,655 pre-orders number is just box sales (http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders.php), not including digital pre-orders from Origin. Adding digital downloads would bring it well past 1 million. I think Bioware is doing the right thing by playing it safe with tiered early starts.

[zealous]

the 752,655 pre-orders number is just box sales (http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders.php), not including digital pre-orders from Origin. Adding digital downloads would bring it well past 1 million. I think Bioware is doing the right thing by playing it safe with tiered early starts.

And those are only US numbers.

The 750k is US alone, we don't have any solid data on EU I think.

[moff]

Other MMOs had much less preorders, right? and had mostly 1 week of early acess? I really hope bioware can do this smoothly, a LOT of people will try to do log in on that weekend. I'm actually surprised the decided the early access days before they made the server stress tests.

[zealous]

Other MMOs had much less preorders, right? and had mostly 1 week of early acess? I really hope bioware can do this smoothly, a LOT of people will try to do log in on that weekend. I'm actually surprised the decided the early access days before they made the server stress tests.

They did internal server stress tests through some software/hardware means already, and there's a massive beta invite coming for the last few weeks iirc.

Like thousands more than in the initial beta, to stress test the servers even more.

[MonsterSword]

I'm guessing that they already know how much the servers can take and will test that number with the inc massive beta inv

[colester]

Yea it's the reasons that you have all mentioned and then there are probable other reasons like making it a enjoyable experience for the player. I mean many have experienced the first few days of The Burning Crusade and Wrath. I can't tell you how bad it felt to have to fight over 10 other ppl to kill one mob. So the experience is enjoyable for all.

[zealous]

Yea it's the reasons that you have all mentioned and then there are probable other reasons like making it a enjoyable experience for the player. I mean many have experienced the first few days of The Burning Crusade and Wrath. I can't tell you how bad it felt to have to fight over 10 other ppl to kill one mob. So the experience is enjoyable for all.

Cata was the most horrible one for me, definitely worse than WotLK. Swarms and swarms of both mobs and players, to a point where you had to use the interact key on NPC nameplates to get quests.

The mob respawns were around 0.5 seconds in Hyjal, I had to run a mile and huddle into a corner to get on my mount and fly away.

[DaGhostDS]

They did internal server stress tests through some software/hardware means already, and there's a massive beta invite coming for the last few weeks iirc.

Like thousands more than in the initial beta, to stress test the servers even more.

Very likely, there is external QA company that exist only for that if they cant do it internally.
First Beta weekend had issues with server, they probably did a session on the same day to test stuff.

Cata was the most horrible one for me, definitely worse than WotLK. Swarms and swarms of both mobs and players, to a point where you had to use the interact key on NPC nameplates to get quests.

The mob respawns were around 0.5 seconds in Hyjal, I had to run a mile and huddle into a corner to get on my mount and fly away.

For me thats the annoying part of cata.. imagine the part i hate :<

[colester]

Cata was the most horrible one for me, definitely worse than WotLK. Swarms and swarms of both mobs and players, to a point where you had to use the interact key on NPC nameplates to get quests.

The mob respawns were around 0.5 seconds in Hyjal, I had to run a mile and huddle into a corner to get on my mount and fly away.

Yea that was blizzard trying to deal with ppl fighting over mobs by doing that. I found the spawn spot and would camp it to finish quests. Hey your lucky bc my server had the idiot alliance pvping themselves to make ppl accidentally click them while trying to click quest giver. Swtor doing it this way will hopefully diminish the fighting over mobs.

[Deleted]

You realise that the people who put in code in July could get in AM on 15th, while those who input in December could be PM on 16th, right? Yet another example of an argument thriving on a lack of facts, fertilised with misinformation.

[WoWGoneBad]

You realise that the people who put in code in July could get in AM on 15th, while those who input in December could be PM on 16th, right? Yet another example of an argument thriving on a lack of facts, fertilised with misinformation.

and what at all pre-do-tell has that have to do with beta invs coming. We are looking into the stress test invs not EA although EA is highly anticipated and salavated lol

also even with the way they plan to stagger the EA it will still have issues with starters having to compete with others for mob kills

[tripplebooya]

and what at all pre-do-tell has that have to do with beta invs coming. We are looking into the stress test invs not EA although EA is highly anticipated and salavated lol

also even with the way they plan to stagger the EA it will still have issues with starters having to compete with others for mob kills

What?...I don't even...

[WoWGoneBad]

What?...I don't even...

then dont and we will be all the better for that

[Deleted]

and what at all pre-do-tell has that have to do with beta invs coming. We are looking into the stress test invs not EA although EA is highly anticipated and salavated lol

Wait, what is the title of this thread again? And if you don't know how to use "Pray tell" then don't. Some people really need to pay more attention. They will just get mistaken for trolls and reported as such.

Given that the issuance of Early Access will be mostly automated, there's a good chance that the staggering will only take place over 48 hours, giving almost everyone 4 days of access.

[tripplebooya]

then dont and we will be all the better for that

Ya, act like I'm the one who makes no sense. Your post is laughably hard to read

[jearle]

Wait, what is the title of this thread again? And if you don't know how to use "Pray tell" then don't. Some people really need to pay more attention. They will just get mistaken for trolls and reported as such.

Given that the issuance of Early Access will be mostly automated, there's a good chance that the staggering will only take place over 48 hours, giving almost everyone 4 days of access.

I really really hope this isn't the case, I hope they do a true staggering. Day 1 should be those who registered in month 1 after pre-orders went up. Day 2 those who did a little later, ect.

Evenly spreading out these pre-orders is going to make everyones life better. It will make for a less laggy more stable launch of the game. It will reduce the need for extra instances of planets. I foresee 5-7 instances of each starter area and 10+ for DK and Coruscant (Think Barrens Chat + Org/SW trade chat).

The smoother the launch the better everything will go.