Bioware Releases Star Wars: The Old Republic Oceanic Servers

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Bioware Releases Star Wars: The Old Republic Oceanic Servers

Post by tHeBoRg @ 04:26pm 29/02/12 | 62 Comments

The long anticipated Oceanic servers for Bioware's first and very popular MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic are about to launch, according to a post over at the official forums.

Here's our official launch timing. All servers will be online simultaneously at approx 5:01AM CST (Austin time), but with timezones straddling a date:

New Zealand: 12:01am NZDT (March 1st)
Australia: 10:01pm EDT (February 29th)
Singapore: 7:01pm SGT (February 29th)
Hong Kong: 7:01pm HKT (February 29th)

We'll be launching with three initial servers dedicated to these territories. As previously mentioned, these servers are physically located in Australia:

Dalborra (PvE)
Master Dar'Nala (PvP)
Gav Daragon (RP PvE)

If demand requires we open additional servers, we have the hardware ready to go. Our Live Production team will be carefully monitoring server population and potential queues to ensure the best possible experience for players.

This is quite a exciting event, as this will be the first big name MMO to actually have servers physically in Australia, unlike Blizzard's World of Warcraft Oceanic servers which are still located in America. If things go successfully, this will hopefully prove a viable option for future MMO developers.

For more information, Bioware will be conducting a Frequently Asked Question session tomorrow, which you will find over here.

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ravn0s
Posted 04:39pm 29/2/12

i'll be logging on at 9.01 to reserve character names just in case.

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Khel
Posted 04:51pm 29/2/12

The servers are in sydney

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TiT
Posted 05:19pm 29/2/12

Is there demo or something out for this game?

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Deviouz
Posted 05:30pm 29/2/12

Master Dar'Nala (PvP) is gonna be packed!

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Nerfy
Posted 05:33pm 29/2/12

So tempting. Will be interested to see how local servers Æffect performance.

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Khel
Posted 05:33pm 29/2/12

I'll be going to Dalborra cos I'm a carebear

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Obes
Posted 05:53pm 29/2/12

No news on transfers...

Not sure I want to roll yet another alt ... the space bar can't take it captain.

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BEHUB
Posted 06:06pm 29/2/12

There is news on transfers .. sort of. Emails will go out regarding transfers later this week.

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ravn0s
Posted 06:24pm 29/2/12

yeah those who are eligible will receive emails in a day or two regarding transferring.

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defi
Posted 06:34pm 29/2/12

Can we get the game off origin yet for all us that didn't originally buy it?

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Eorl
Posted 08:31pm 29/2/12

yeah those who are eligible will receive emails in a day or two regarding transferring.

You need to have Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand etc as your country of origin to be eligible.

Also congrats tHeBoRg on your first promoted item.

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Obes
Posted 08:40pm 29/2/12

Can we get the game off origin yet for all us that didn't originally buy it?

According to the original press releases it won't be available in Australia via Origin.

Blame the local "publishers"/distribution trained monkeys.

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Painrift
Posted 08:47pm 29/2/12

hmmm i wonder when it will pop on origin for purchase, want to get the big download started

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Painrift
Posted 08:50pm 29/2/12

oh wait scrap that ..

"The digital versions of the Game will be available in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore at Origin.com and buy.swtor.com on Thursday, March 1st, 2012, 12:01AM EDT, 2:01AM NZDT; Hong Kong and Singapore: Thursday, March 1st, 2012, 12:01AM HKT, 12:01AM SGT."

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Obes
Posted 09:53pm 29/2/12

They are up, and Obes is not me ... beaten ...

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ravn0s
Posted 10:03pm 29/2/12

reserved all my names.

ping ranges from 25-35 woot

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Obes
Posted 10:06pm 29/2/12

Sydney Telstra backbone by the looks.

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ravn0s
Posted 10:17pm 29/2/12

heh when i got onto master dar'nala it already had a very high pop.

edit: swtor site has it and dalborra listed as full.

last edited by ravn0s at 22:17:33 29/Feb/12

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casa
Posted 10:21pm 29/2/12

haha obes, i have your name, just to be a cunt :)

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Eorl
Posted 10:22pm 29/2/12

The question I want to know, is it worth playing again?

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Wolstencroft
Posted 10:34pm 29/2/12

Both the PvP and PvE servers are listed as Full with a Q on the pvp server already.

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groganus
Posted 10:37pm 29/2/12

Both the PvP and PvE servers are listed as Full with a Q on the pvp server already.

This is why there are no day 1 server transfers... They need to see what intake is like and work out a viable time to do it.

I created a toon, walked into starting quest area, saw billions of people, went into nearest cantina and logged out. To much fighting over mob for me to give a fuck.

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Khel
Posted 10:39pm 29/2/12

Gay, looks like character transfers aren't happening any time soon.

Qualified players in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, or Singapore, will be offered one-time free character transfers to Asia Pacific servers for a limited time period in late April.

From the FAQ

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Hogfather
Posted 10:55pm 29/2/12

wtf re. transfers

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TicMan
Posted 11:04pm 29/2/12

Well I guess they need to give people (A RIDICULOUSLY LONG AMOUNT OF) time for people to get up to end game and gear up otherwise there'd be some whiners about level imbalance or something.

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Eorl
Posted 11:08pm 29/2/12

But that's the thing, a majority of the Australians that want to play, are playing, and have been since launch. This might entice a few new people, but I don't really see why they need to stagger transfer that late.

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Nerfy
Posted 11:09pm 29/2/12

Frak, somebody has offered to give me a superfluous account with time credit, efforts to resist this game are being foiled by horrible horrible good luck. >_<

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Eorl
Posted 11:11pm 29/2/12

I would offer my account, but it's tied with BF3 sadly. And it's "illegal".

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reso
Posted 11:23pm 29/2/12

So how does it feel?

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illumanist
Posted 12:22am 01/3/12

If WoW opened Aus servers, as much as i hate the direction that games been heading. I would be back in an instant!

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illumanist
Posted 12:24am 01/3/12

Seriously now. Activision Blizzard IS the most richest corporate gaming company out there at the moment. Bioware can build aus servers here but blizzard says no?

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DM
Posted 12:27am 01/3/12

Makes you wonder why they resist so much when a game with about 1/4 the player base can manage. Blizzard must hate australians something crazy to just say tough shit and force most people to use proxies to get reasonable pings.

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TiT
Posted 08:28am 01/3/12

so it cost 89 on the orgin store which is rip off then how much does it cost a month????????????

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Eorl
Posted 08:32am 01/3/12

$15 a month. Get it from a cd key website, will be much cheaper :-)

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ravn0s
Posted 09:29am 01/3/12

amazon had it on sale for $40 recently

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Khel
Posted 10:37am 01/3/12

Your first month is free when you buy it too

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Obes
Posted 10:46am 01/3/12

Late April for transfers.

... 2 months of bleeding players on empty servers

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Hogfather
Posted 11:43am 01/3/12

So how does it feel?

Felt pretty fucking good in the newbie zone, even at 70ms from Cairns.

Shit is just so much more responsive. I'm considering re-rolling permanently and just logging into the old server for raids TBH.

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Khel
Posted 11:46am 01/3/12

Yeah, it was actually pretty weird having stuff go off immediately when I pressed a key, I didn't realise how much my play style had adapted to compensating for that 200 - 300ms delay until it was no longer there.

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TiT
Posted 11:48am 01/3/12

What's the cheapest ppl have seen it for?

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Eorl
Posted 12:03pm 01/3/12

CJS CD Keys has it for $51.94, not sure if that's the cheapest around http://www.cjs-cdkeys.com/products/Star-Wars%3A-The-Old-Republic-CD-Key-for-Origin.html?setCurrencyId=4

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kappa
Posted 12:04pm 01/3/12

It's $42.69 AUD from amazon inc shipping. Shame it doesn't have free shipping because that's $15 on its own.

Or cjs keys have it for around $51 AUD key only.

Not sure if these are cheapest out there.

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TiT
Posted 12:37pm 01/3/12

Also how big is the game to download??

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Obes
Posted 12:40pm 01/3/12

Yeah 27ping here in Brisbane.
Felt good.

But reroll ... ugh ... or wait 2 months

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defi
Posted 12:41pm 01/3/12

Will be buying this arvo. Should be my weekend entertainment.

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ravn0s
Posted 12:42pm 01/3/12

Also how big is the game to download??

my swtor folder is 19gb

Shit is just so much more responsive. I'm considering re-rolling permanently and just logging into the old server for raids TBH.

i think i'll just make an alt on there for now

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defi
Posted 12:44pm 01/3/12

Just saw there are ques on these aussie servers? Really? That actually makes me not want to play if I cant log on and start raping face immediately.

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TicMan
Posted 07:35pm 01/3/12

I must be doing it wrong.. 200ms pings :(

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glynd
Posted 09:22pm 01/3/12

22 ping here ... still find myself adjusting for lag but it just isn't there :|

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Obes
Posted 11:09am 02/3/12

Got my transfer email today.

It reads like a single character.

You qualify for a one-time, free character transfer to our Asia Pacific servers.

If it was multi toon I would have worded it.

You qualify for a one-time free transfer of characters to our Asia Pacific servers.

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Khel
Posted 11:25am 02/3/12

Yeah, I got that impression too, but then when I was looking through the forums for info on what would happen to legacy levels when I transferred, I found this little nugget of info (which really, shouldn't be buried in some unrelated thread, it should have been in that email, looks like their customer service is still a bit on the shit side).

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=337076

This is the bit that grabbed my attention:

We'll have more information about Legacy levels and experience a little closer to the window for character transfer. The system is still in development, and I don't want to promise anything that may not happen for whatever reason.

With that said, the development team is being very careful to ensure that the experience is as smooth as possible. We don't want to penalize anyone's progression just because they transferred their character.

On question (2), you will be able to transfer multiple characters, although there will be some limitations (eg available slots on a server). Again, more details will come closer to the time, but you will not be limited to one character.

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Obes
Posted 12:52pm 02/3/12

Nice nugget.

Their communication is poor.

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Mosfx
Posted 11:14pm 02/3/12

Mosfx on the PVP realm

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defi
Posted 04:14pm 03/3/12

Defi on pvp realm. No latency is amazing.... Just topped the first bg I entered at level 12. The community seems very angry, and unfriendly to the people that haven't played before. No different to wow, just thought it may be different. Linear questing I love, but I feel the game would be quite a steep learning curve for new mmoers.

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DM
Posted 08:30pm 04/3/12

Ahahahahahhahaha oh man I loled hard at this

awesome

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Eorl
Posted 08:35pm 04/3/12

So true...

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Nerfy
Posted 11:10pm 04/3/12

Did they really ban somebody for an "I'm 12 and what is this?" ? looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaawl.

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Khel
Posted 12:55am 05/3/12

Meh, just sounds like someone bitter having a cry, welcome to the internet. Comic was semi-entertaining at first till it got to the unsubscribe part and just became whinging.

A lot of that stuff about people being banned for stupid things in the early days was actually faked too. Their customer service IS pretty bad though, but at the same time, most customers are fucking retarded, so thats a bad combination.

I'm still enjoying it, I'm just stuck in this limbo at the moment where I don't really want to play on my old server anymore cos its now dead at the times I play, and I don't really want to level up another alt on the local australian servers, so I'm mostly just killing time till they turn the transfers on, which is a bit annoying. Started levelling up a Jedi consular on the new pve server, but I already have like my main, and a bounty hunter alt, and an imp agent alt, and a smuggler alt on the other server, and I just can't be bothered levelling up another alt at the moment. Plus I also dunno what its going to do with regards to my legacy.

I think the most depressing thing though is the self-entitled douchebags I've seen mouthing off since the local servers opened up. I mean, we have local servers, that alone is a pretty awesome step forwards, PLUS they're offering us free character transfers. Free. Yet I still see people on the forums, or ingame with the "Fuck Bioware, I fucking hate them, how dare they do this to us, I'm totally cancelling my subscription RIGHT NOW." I mean, yeah, its a bit inconvinient we have to wait for the transfers, but fucking hell, local servers and free transfers? They're doing more than any other MMO is doing for aussies.

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Zapo
Posted 08:43am 05/3/12

I wonder if they're saying end of April for transfers as they're getting their shit together and don't have the transfer system ready yet OR they think 2 months is even to spread out the population, and encourge exisiting places to create new characters there to add population to lower levels?

Either way I don't really care. The main thing that's pissing me off is that they've confirmed the maintenance windows won't be changed :( UGH! I would have thought that would have been on the top of the list for having regional servers.

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TicMan
Posted 09:05am 05/3/12

I reckon Khel should level up his alt on the PVP server and come join in the rest of us for some fun.

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ravn0s
Posted 09:30am 05/3/12