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We just received some extremely exciting news straight out of the blue about Stars Wars: The Old Republic!
Contents
Cloud Servers
Before they moved to teams from Bioware to Broadsword, the development team had been testing out moving the game servers on to the ‘cloud’. This means that instead of having their own technology host the servers, they would instead be using Amazon’s servers and technology, which are generally considered more up to date and more stable.
The test that they had performed earlier in the year was called the Shae Vizla server. It was a server hosted on the cloud, and it was located in the APAC region – Asia Pacific. Even with a greater physical distance between players in the US / Europe, the APAC Amazon server test went really well and very few players seem to experience any additional lag.
After that test was successfully concluded Bioware actually wound up moving studios from Bioware to Broadsword and we kind of assumed that put all plans on hiatus. In the end this wound up not even being close to true, which was really interesting with such a big change.
We got news today that not only are the plans to migrate the servers to the cloud still very much in place, and still soon on the horizon, they’re coming in FOUR DAYS! The first server to move to the cloud will be The Leviathan on August 15th.
As far as I understand you also don’t have to worry about anything or do anything specific – all of your account, your characters, your items, all that stuff is all remaining exactly the same on the cloud servers.
Benefits of Cloud Servers
While none of these are guaranteed and we’ll still of course depend on your own connection, physical location, and your computer, some of the things that the cloud servers may bring include:
- Technology that allows the devs to improve the overall player experience such as connectivity, ping, faster start up, and better in-game performance
- Backend updates that are crucial to the continued health and stability of the game can be streamlined more efficiently
- Be able to leverage and integrate updated tech such as newer hardware and software. Through cloud modernization, we can update numerous tools and automation workflows which will help us maintain the game for long term.
- Once finalized, SWTOR may be capable to extend its servers capabilities to reach new players (APAC servers? Language servers? Fresh Start servers?)
- The resources required to maintain current systems can be reallocated to focusing on enhancing the game experience – basically they won’t have to keep duct taping their current servers back together.
Test it Out August 15th
You’ll be able to test out the cloud servers. On August. 15th after the downtime by. Logging into the French leviathan server. And you should be able to check that out even if you’re North American. Player you can see what your connection feels like there as.
The developers will be starting with the Leviathan server and moving it over to the cloud on August 15th. It sounds like if that works out well, they’ll then work on the next batch of servers so Satele Shan, Star Forge, Darth Malgus and Tulak Hord.
They did mention an important thing for you to know, especially if you’re doing any specific activity during that time. At 7am CT, the downtime for Leviathan will be about six hours. The other servers will still stay up. So if you normally play on a server that’s down (in this case Leviathan) you can just go hop on another one and play there.
However the other servers will be ‘bounced.’ This means that they will go offline momentarily and then come back online. So if you’re just fussing around on the fleet, or crafting, or doing basic questing you shouldn’t have any issues you just get logged back in real quick.
But if you’re doing something like an operation or Flashpoint you may be stuck in middle of the fight and have to restart it.
Official Post
SWTOR begins to move servers to the cloud!
Next week, we will be setting up our game servers to be moved over the cloud. This is an initiative we have been testing for months beginning with moving the Public Test Server over to the cloud last year, and testing a new server on AWS in April of this year. We are thrilled to announce the next steps in this journey with our players.
We have been making strides in our efforts to modernize and update the game. Some of the benefits of this particular migration are:
- Backend updates that are crucial to the continued health and stability of the game can be streamlined more efficiently
- The resources required to maintain our current systems can be reallocated to focusing on enhancing the game experience
- We will be able to leverage and integrate updated tech such as newer hardware and software. Through cloud modernization, we can update numerous tools and automation workflows which will help us maintain the game for long term.
- Once finalized, SWTOR may be capable to extend its servers capabilities to reach new players
When is this happening?
We want to minimize long term impact on play time, so we will be moving servers over in small batches beginning with a single server first.
We are targeting August 15th to migrate the Leviathan server over to the cloud.
It is important to note that when we do the migration, we will have to bounce all the servers, meaning they will be taken down momentarily but brought back up immediately save for the server(s) moving to the cloud. On August 15th, players should expect the Satele Shan, Darth Malgus, Star Forge, and Tulak Hord servers to bounce; however, Leviathan’s estimated downtime is expected to be 6 hours. Downtime will begin at 7am CT/12pm UTC.
Upon successful completion of the initial migration, we will communicate out the next batch of servers that will be moved over and a timeline of when this will happen. We will follow the same migration process detailed above.
As always, we will communicate additional details, or any timeline changes on our social channels and
Official Older Post about Shae Vizla Test
Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ to open test server hosted on the cloud!
Over the past few months, we launched a number of initiatives to update and improve the game and its supporting platforms. In our 11 year anniversary blog, it was mentioned that several iterations of our Public Test Server (PTS) had been hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). From updating the game launcher to launching the game in 64-bit with Game Update 7.2.1, we are delighted to announce the next step in our tech upgrade initiative. We are now preparing to move live servers over to AWS!
We will be launching a test server that will be completely hosted on the cloud. The new test server, Shae Vizla, will be opening up in the APAC region April 3, 2023 and it will be available for all players to test until April 18, 2023.
Why is SWTOR migrating to cloud based servers?
This is a continuation of our effort to modernize and update the game with the focus to improve the player experience and optimize tech that is used by the team. Some of the benefits to this migration are:
- This technology allows us to improve the overall player experience such as connectivity, ping, faster start up, and better in-game performance
- Backend updates that are crucial to the continued health and stability of the game can be streamlined more efficiently
- The resources required to maintain our current systems can be reallocated to focusing on enhancing the game experience
- We will be able to leverage and integrate updated tech such as newer hardware, software, and graphics
- Once finalized, SWTOR may be capable to extend its servers capabilities to reach new players
There are functionality benefits for both the players and the development team.
What will be the player experience during the testing period?
While this is a test server, this will be conducted a little differently than how we run the PTS. All players regardless of account type will be able to log on. And unlike the PTS, there will not be a separate download.
In the list of live servers, Shae Vizla will be notated as [Test Server]. Simply click to log in as you would any live server.
Players will be able to start new characters or copy a previously existing character over to the Shae Vizla test server once it opens.
We will be opening the server on April 3rd at 12pm CT (April 4th at 4am AEST) and will be closing it on April 18th at 10am CT (April 19th at 2am AEST). [[This is just a copy of the old post, this test is now concluded. – Swtorista]]
What do we want players to test out?
We want to see if there is anything that would keep a player from experiencing their regular routine and normal play. Examples of what we would like players to keep in mind:
- Compared to an existing server, how is the performance?
- Any specific areas or planets where you feel the performance has lessened?
- What region/country do you reside in?
- Provide a comparison of ping from existing servers to Shae Vizla.
- Is grouped content working properly?
- How quickly can you get into a match or Flashpoint you’ve accepted?
- Is travel to any location (planet, Stronghold, Fleet, etc…) hindered?
- Are there any issues with the UI such as missing assets or loss of functionality?
- Are there any issues with visuals or sounds with the cinematics?
It is imperative to note that Shae Vizla is still a test server. The Cartel Market will not be accessible and once the test is complete, the server will be wiped.
This is opening in the APAC region?
Yes! We would especially love to hear from players who reside in the APAC region so please let us know what your overall experience is when providing feedback!
When the test server goes live, we will have spaces available on the SWTOR and AHQ Forums for players to provide their thoughts, experiences, insights, and feedback.
We will be granting the Opal Vuptilla Mount to players who achieve the following:
- Log into the new server
- Complete an Arena or Warzone PvP match
- Complete a GSF match
- Complete a Flashpoint
This mount will be granted to all eligible players upon the next patch update following the closing of the test server.
As noted above, we will open the Shae Vizla server on April 3rd and will close on April 18th. From there, we will analyze all the data and feedback received from the testing period to determine if another test phase is needed or if we will move forward with moving all of our current live servers over to AWS. We will communicate next steps after our analysis is complete.
We want to thank all of our players for joining us in our tech journey to further improve The Old Republic!
Questions or comments? Feel free to send me a message on Twitter 
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