FREE Character Transfers are Coming!

[Nethgilne]

I do not see how that can be hindsight. Every MMO since World of Warcraft has had to consolidate servers a few months after release. I do not know why Bioware thought TOR would be the exception.

 

In beta they should have developed the plan to either let people sit in queue and control the amount of servers or create more servers soon after release and have server merge protocol readily available.

 

They made the same mistake every MMO for the last seven years had made, they added more servers to compensate for the popularity of release then failed to have swift measures for combining servers when the they slowed down.

 

I can't argue since i don't know why every MMO developer had failed to see this coming. Perhaps there are inherent logistical difficulties ? Looming deadlines? Maybe it comes down to plain ol' hubris on Bioware's part. I don't know. Obviously, having a back up strategy on hand is preferable to not having one, but such is life.

 

Looking past all the would've, could've and should'ves - "What is the best way forward" is the more constructive question now.

[savagepotato]

At least I know for sure that there is no point renewing my subscription at this time. By July I will have long forgotten about this game as will the other 80% of the population that have left by then.

 

Way, way too little, way too late.

[Jett-Rinn]

At least I know for sure that there is no point renewing my subscription at this time. By July I will have long forgotten about this game as will the other 80% of the population that have left by then.

 

Way, way too little, way too late.

 

OMGZORZ MASS EXODUS!!!!!

 

The haters have been saying that since beta; it seems you are still wrong.

[Puppup]

It's a strange phenomenon, but certain low pop servers will coalesce into the goto place.

 

Then it will be kind of like star wars.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Puppup

[MistenTH]

I think many people are missing the point. They are offering free transfers to specific servers so that they are encouraging people from 3 to 4 low pop servers to all transfer.onto the same server. But as some people still want choice it is there just that you pay for it. If it was free transfer for all then the fatman would have 5 hour queues.

[Kthx]

Lol character transfers after 6 months of the most expensive mmo made to date.

 

I think it's just about perfect. Impatient MMO-of-the-day players will be weeded out, and more mature, more patient players who just happen to have ended up on servers with low populations will benefit.

[Tatebomb]

Can't wait. All my 50's can be a happy family.

[Puppup]

OMGZORZ MASS EXODUS!!!!!

 

The haters have been saying that since beta; it seems you are still wrong.

 

You may make fun, but the last time I paid was March 19th.

[TheLightningLord]

Here's the thing. The "targeted server transfers" aren't going to work. Why would anyone want to transfer from a Light server, to another Light server? If you allow transfers to "Standard" servers, everyone will migrate there and cause them to be Full. This will result in 5-6 servers being Full, and the rest being completely empty. That might be good for the community, but there's no way EA is going to allow their monthly reports to say, "Six Full servers, the rest are empty and we should just close them down."

 

They should just merge 5 or 6 Light servers together, 2 or 3 Standard servers, and don't allow anyone to transfer to the Full or Very Heavy servers.

 

Bioware is completely incompetent though, so I'm sure they'll choose the most screwed up way to approach it. Also, as a side note, "early summer"? Really? People have only been asking for this for 3-4 months and the best you give them after dodging the question numerous times is "early summer"?

 

Too late Bioware.

[Puppup]

It can work, only have a few magnet type names for free.

[Sammm]

If I was the guy leading that free transfers program, here's what I'd do:

 

-Until then, I'd keep monitoring every server populations, very very closely.

-Based on the mid June populations statistics (guilds per server, population in each guild, empire/republic ratio, age and sex distributions), I'd match the appropriate servers.

-At the end of June, I'd start the free transfers program to end up with 80 (not 120+) servers with equally distributed and balanced populations.

 

So I'd temporarily condemn the other 40 servers and activate them in case of a SWTOR population explosion in the upcoming years. That way, we'd have Heavy populations on ALL servers during most peak hours. It'd be only during special events and big updates/expansions releases that it'd switch to Very Heavy or Full.

 

Also, for the future subscribers, I'd strongly suggest to them about 4-5 specific servers to join. That way, we'd keep distributing the new players among all the 80 servers.

 

What do you guys think?

[FreysFury]

What do you guys think?

 

I think Terminova is a fanboi

 

I think this game is dying

 

I think they tried to be both PVP and WoW clone, and failed at both. Story lines and voice acting are the only hooks but have no replay value. The instanced PVP is stupid, just like it was stupid in WoW. They should have gone and talked to the people who designed Dark Age of Camelot or UO in their early days to find out what real PVP players really like

 

I think it's too late to save the game, as it has too many issues that should have been handled in Beta that were not even handled 6 months after launch.

 

I think my subscription runs out in 20 days and I won't be back.

 

Sorry... did you really want to talk about the weather, or were you just making conversation?

Edited April 28, 2012 by FreysFury

[ItsMattsFault]

Considering this game is based on the Legacy idea, it boggles me that they will do character transfers instead of merges of low servers. So basically, I just made this massive family tree of my filled up 8 characters, only to take away a couple of them and basically restart my legacy anyway.

 

Man that's a damn bummer.

 

<------- Haha get it?

Edited April 28, 2012 by ItsMattsFault
typos

[kronas]

I read this on the Character Transfer system and was like ok now this is funny. Just in case you missed it. Dallas Dickinson (Senior Producer, Live Services): We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer.

 

This is funny people on low population servers are expected to wait until then to transfer servers or they must roll toons on higher population servers to be able to really enjoy the game which en tales then to start the game over from scratch. Yeah let's see how many people wait till this system launches and how much lower the server populations go in the mean time. This is a little to late put the new content on the back burner for a little bit and get this system out sooner or you're going to have a great game that is going to be very low on the active subscriptions. This is just my opinion feel free to think I am wrong.

[FreysFury]

Considering this game is based on the Legacy idea, it boggles me that they will do character transfers instead of merges of low servers. So basically, I just made this massive family tree of my filled up 8 characters, only to take away a couple of them and basically restart my legacy anyway.

 

Man that's a damn bummer.

 

You can pay out your ^%@ even more money than you've already dumped in and get them back together.

 

What's your beef?

Edited April 28, 2012 by FreysFury

[Tenceriker]

Wow.

 

You already know with 100% certainty what servers people can transfer to/from for free, which transfers will money, and what the impact will be on light servers.

 

All that despite the fact that Bioware hasn't actually announced when the transfers will ocur, which transfers will be free, which transfers will cost money, or how much money they'll cost.

 

 

Ssssh, that's crazy talk. Why let facts get in the way of good whine?

 

Did you just ignore the "targeted transfer to/from selected servers?" Now, let's say that a Server we'll call A is having population issues and Server B is highly populated. Based on just the current system why the hell would anyone from B ever leave to go to A knowing that the economy and other issues will plague that server? And furthermore, without mergers why would they even allow people to move from A to B? It'd be creating dead servers and they have made it very clear Bioware doesn't intent to merging/killing any servers unless its a last resort.

 

Now based on these facts it's pretty obvious to anyone who doesn't have rose-tinted glasses or a mental handicap they are planning on forcing players to pay to transfer to servers that have a decent population. Or did you really think Bioware just plans to go back on everything they have said so far on server populations. So which is more likely with EA stockholders standing behind them, Bioware deciding to abruptly change everything they said on population or Bioware making tons of money of players who want to transfer servers we know will be around in 6 months to a year. Or did you fail to consider that people will not want to change legacies 3 or 4 times before settling down?

[GalacticKegger]

"Early Summer?" Sorry, too little too late.

As you wish.

[Dext]

im actually really pleased to see this information. a little bummed that the free transfers are only to specific servers though. I hope some good ones are on the list.

 

I can see why they would do this tho. If people could go to let sat the Fat Man server, it's pop would be so high that the Q times would just be nuts.

[Tenceriker]

I can see why they would do this tho. If people could go to let sat the Fat Man server, it's pop would be so high that the Q times would just be nuts.

 

Except that many people re-rolled there or elsewhere and they just want to bring over their old characters.

[FreysFury]

This is funny people on low population servers are expected to wait until then to transfer servers or they must roll toons on higher population servers to be able to really enjoy the game which en tales then to start the game over from scratch. Yeah let's see how many people wait till this system launches and how much lower the server populations go in the mean time. This is a little to late put the new content on the back burner for a little bit and get this system out sooner or you're going to have a great game that is going to be very low on the active subscriptions. This is just my opinion feel free to think I am wrong.

 

I only think you're wrong about it being a great game. It's an average game with the advantage of a wildly popular IP.

 

The rest of what you said is pretty accurate.

[GalacticKegger]

GREAT NEWS!!!

 

hope people stop making posts about it now and be happy for once.

Good luck with that. Let's see, we've had server queues (fixed), ability delay (fixed), UI customization (fixed), more content (fixed), server popuation imbalances (en route) ... That leaves a WoWesque LFG tool (in the pipeline) a real time DPS meter/combat log (deemed not a priority), flight sim style space travel & combat (reportedly in development) and ranked PvP (in rework.) I missed some stuff, but it really doesn't matter. This game could be perfect and there will always be a cell of people who will make stuff up because they can. Edited April 28, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[SyphonLord]

From the 4/27/2012 Q&A:

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-april-27th-2012

 

And again...

 

Big news for the SWTOR community, especially those on low population (and super high population) servers. I am personally very pleased that BW is making this first wave of transfers free; good costumer service move on their part.

 

No exact ETA on the date of these transfers, but I imagine that "Early summer" means sometime in June.

 

A step forward to say the least.

[kronas]

I only think you're wrong about it being a great game. It's an average game with the advantage of a wildly popular IP.

 

The rest of what you said is pretty accurate.

 

you know it's sad when the only problem that someone points out is the fact that you called it a great game that's gotta tell Bioware something is actually going on that just might be terribly wrong. Yes right now I'm in a smart @#! mood wasn't when I wrote my first comment.

[kronas]

From the 4/27/2012 Q&A:

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-april-27th-2012

 

No exact ETA on the date of these transfers, but I imagine that "Early summer" means sometime in June.

 

I'm sorry I hate to kill your joy but "Early Summer" is considered the first month of Summer from June 20, 2012 until July 19, 2012.

[KeshaVex]

Look at the context. The developers are asked what they are doing about the low population servers and their response is to confirm the character transfer service. Think about that for a second. Yes, WoW has a character transfer service, too, but it's clear that they offer it to allow people to move to where they want to be, not because they are struggling to keep server populations propped up.

 

The only reason character transfers are being offered here is because the reality has set in: there are not enough players playing the game to maintain existing servers and, rather than a forced server consolidation (an overt acknowledgment of failure), they do the next best thing: give people free transfers to re-distribute the loads while quietly shutting down the really low pops along the way.

 

There's really no other way to put it or analyse it. The game's popularity is ... disappointing. I'm disappointed, you're disappointed, they're disappointed. Everyone is disappointed. Stop fooling yourselves and start DOING something about it.