FREE Character Transfers are Coming!

[Jonoku]

Well if they want to keep their sub'd players or get their old sub'd players back they would be smart and get it done before the free 30 days end if not then they should add 3 more days or so until they get it done. Transfers are needed ASAP, 123 US servers? really? thats one too many lolol, they might of had too high of an expectation. reduce those servers to 50.

[SneakyErvin]

That's a pretty big leap to make, especially since it goes against the current MMO norm. Free transfers are typically FROM low-pops TO higher pop servers. Not to the low-pops. Their goal is to cull the number of low-pops, so transferring to one will not be possible.

 

Well they are hellbent on not merging servers, so there is no intention on their part to kill off or lock any servers, I'm not sure what their idea is. They will probably pick on low pop server as the target server of a cluster of other low pop servers. But what happens with the people on standard servers, will we get a chance to transfer too to a server of the same type?

 

In my case I'm on Jung Ma (rp-pvp) not many other rp-pvp servers out there, are we stuck or are we forced to a pve server, a rp server or a pvp server?

 

They cant really force people to transfer to the rp-pvp one, because its made up of two different sets of rules. Best would be to allow us to transfer to a pvp server with a proper population. Transfers probably won solve many issues anyways, merging is probably the only final solution.

[Raiffiel]

Well if they want to keep their sub'd players or get their old sub'd players back they would be smart and get it done before the free 30 days end if not then they should add 3 more days or so until they get it done. Transfers are needed ASAP, 123 US servers? really? thats one too many lolol, they might of had too high of an expectation. reduce those servers to 50.

 

The QQ on these boards over even the slightest thing is epic. As a paying customer, if I wasn't happy with the service, I would unsub. Did it with both STO and the Epicly terrible WoW. It's too bad, since the game is actually quite fun. TThe stories are captivating and the settings beautifully designed. But let's not talk about that, let's just ***** endlessly about low server pops and the need for transfers. I mean, it's not like the Devs are doing work on a expansion, LFG tool, and various other in game stuff.

[Baneberry]

Nothing short of mass server mergers will save my subscription a this point. It runs out in just over a month, and I wont be renewing any time soon if they cant fix this population issue.

 

What bio-ware needs to do is relies that they ****ed up putting out soooo many servers, and fix the problem before they look any more stupid. Every day the goes by with this absurd number of servers live is another day closer to me never playing this game again.

 

In the end, we need to have 15 or 20 servers with a population to rival the fat man. i sure as hell will not be paying them $20 to move my main to another server, and until my main is on a healthy population server i will not be giving them another months subscription.

 

And yes, my server was one of the full servers during launch, and i did sit in the hour long q's hoping that it would even out with time, but this is a bit extreme don't you think?

[rbkrbk]

Well if they want to keep their sub'd players or get their old sub'd players back they would be smart and get it done before the free 30 days end if not then they should add 3 more days or so until they get it done. Transfers are needed ASAP, 123 US servers? really? thats one too many lolol, they might of had too high of an expectation. reduce those servers to 50.

 

I agree, but we all know a Carrot Dangler company like EA will try and squeeze out the most they can from their sucke...customers.

 

Which is why I firmly believe they will wait until the largest amount of subscriptions are up for renewal (after the free 30 days are over), and announce it then. I do not have access to these metrics, obviously, so I couldn't even begin to speculate on when this would be.

 

But I'm pretty sure in their heads, they want to say something along the lines of "Hey, we know most of you are about to have your free 30 days end, and just to screw with you a little more, we're going to introduce the services you have been asking, no BEGGING, and waiting for, right when your time runs out. So, jump on the wagon, and come experience the things you wanted to experience, now with more people, BUT, you'll have to RENEW your SUBSCRIPTION first! Yay!".

Edited May 13, 2012 by rbkrbk

[arcdaemon]

Especially when such a large population, me included, wouldn't use it even if it were in. Can't find groups if people don't use it...

Of course most people would use it otherwise they do nothing like what they do now of course this option appeals to you.

[rbkrbk]

The QQ on these boards over even the slightest thing is epic. As a paying customer, if I wasn't happy with the service, I would unsub. Did it with both STO and the Epicly terrible WoW. It's too bad, since the game is actually quite fun. TThe stories are captivating and the settings beautifully designed. But let's not talk about that, let's just ***** endlessly about low server pops and the need for transfers. I mean, it's not like the Devs are doing work on a expansion, LFG tool, and various other in game stuff.

 

I don't think you are understanding the concerns of people that post here. It is not that we don't WANT to play. It's that we CAN'T play. I haven't been able to get an ops group together for the last two weeks for my two mains. PvP wait times are horrendous. I've rolled my alts to 50, I've experienced the stories that I was curious about, but have no interest in playing them in endgame. I have my two characters that I love to play in endgame, but I CAN'T.

 

THAT, good sir, is the problem. It's not that we don't like the product. The product, I feel for the most part, is great. But it is not USABLE at the moment, and the service which should be fixing it to make it usable is not doing it's part quick enough. There have been threads about these issues for a couple of months now, and should be available by now.

[JeramieCrowe]

Well they are hellbent on not merging servers, so there is no intention on their part to kill off or lock any servers, I'm not sure what their idea is. They will probably pick on low pop server as the target server of a cluster of other low pop servers. But what happens with the people on standard servers, will we get a chance to transfer too to a server of the same type?

 

In my case I'm on Jung Ma (rp-pvp) not many other rp-pvp servers out there, are we stuck or are we forced to a pve server, a rp server or a pvp server?

 

They cant really force people to transfer to the rp-pvp one, because its made up of two different sets of rules. Best would be to allow us to transfer to a pvp server with a proper population. Transfers probably won solve many issues anyways, merging is probably the only final solution.

 

Actually, shutting down servers by transfer method is NOT a server merge. A server merge is the act of actually, y'know, "MERGING" two servers into one, the economies, loot tables, software, server environments, etc. It's typically buggy, convoluted, gives the players no choice, and is just outdated.

 

Rift's method, done just last year, of transferring people off of low-pops and shutting them down (again, this is NOT a merge) is simple, easy, takes all of 30 seconds, and results in more happy players than not.

 

THIS is why JO said "NO merges".

[JeramieCrowe]

Of course most people would use it otherwise they do nothing like what they do now of course this option appeals to you.

 

I get 24-mans together quite often, quite easily, with no LFG tool. So, no, I don't need one. But there is going to be one for those that feel they need it. *shrugs* No skin off my back.

Edited May 13, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[CaptainTowers]

I want to leave this low pop server..

 

and I don't want to because it would restart legacy level >.>

 

sigh..

 

I hear you there.... My biggest question is this: If you start on a higher population server (aka Fatman) start a new Legacy and then later Server Transfer over a toon with your Legacy from your low population old server to the new one - Will the Legacy's share unlocks from both the old and new ones?

[Baneberry]

The QQ on these boards over even the slightest thing is epic. As a paying customer, if I wasn't happy with the service, I would unsub. Did it with both STO and the Epicly terrible WoW. It's too bad, since the game is actually quite fun. TThe stories are captivating and the settings beautifully designed. But let's not talk about that, let's just ***** endlessly about low server pops and the need for transfers. I mean, it's not like the Devs are doing work on a expansion, LFG tool, and various other in game stuff.

 

Most people who are posting here have un-subbed, but there is this pesky free month still allowing us to do so.

 

And as for working on a LFG tool and expac, I think they have got their priorities mixed up. They need to fix the glaring problems before introducing the potential for more issues.

 

While the stories were captivating, the linear questing areas were nice looking at best. But how many times can I Conquer Corelia before it gets boring?

 

But i digress. back on topic

 

Nothing short of mass server mergers will save my subscription a this point. It runs out in just over a month, and I wont be renewing any time soon if they cant fix this population issue.

 

What bio-ware needs to do is relies that they ****ed up putting out soooo many servers, and fix the problem before they look any more stupid. Every day the goes by with this absurd number of servers live is another day closer to me never playing this game again.

 

And yes, my server was one of the full servers during launch, and i did sit in the hour long q's hoping that it would even out with time, but this is a bit extreme don't you think?

 

Free server transfers would be a small band aid on the dam that's cracking while trying to hold back the flood of subs leaving this game.

Edited May 13, 2012 by Baneberry

[Macroecon]

The problem is the pop loss as a % of total population is extremely high. They are losing 200k subs per month out of a population base of 1,300k. At that rate, within 3 months your population is nearly halved. Any restricted character transfer scheme is going to be overwhelmed by that population decay rate. Frankly the same problem exists with server mergers. You'd have to fold over and reduce servers every 3 months at least in order to keep them populated sufficiently.

[SneakyErvin]

Actually, shutting down servers by transfer method is NOT a server merge. A server merge is the act of actually, y'know, "MERGING" two servers into one, the economies, loot tables, software, server environments, etc. It's typically buggy, convoluted, gives the players no choice, and is just outdated.

 

Rift's method, done just last year, of transferring people off of low-pops and shutting them down (again, this is NOT a merge) is simple, easy, takes all of 30 seconds, and results in more happy players than not.

 

THIS is why JO said "NO merges".

 

Yes, but there is a huge problem with that which doesnt happen if merging. People that dont have active subs or are actively playing, what happens to their toons that are left behind on the servers that are transfered from?

 

In a merge all characters on a server automatically move to their new destination, no problem for people not having an active sub. If they intend to automatically transfer every character off to a new server it is infact merging, because the old server wont exist and just the target server will live on.

[JeramieCrowe]

The problem is the pop loss as a % of total population is extremely high. They are losing 200k subs per month out of a population base of 1,300k. At that rate, within 3 months your population is nearly halved. Any restricted character transfer scheme is going to be overwhelmed by that population decay rate. Frankly the same problem exists with server mergers. You'd have to fold over and reduce servers every 3 months at least in order to keep them populated sufficiently.

 

An unrestricted one would cause queue times on half the servers with the other half lower than should be, which would result in even more unhappy players and loss.

 

The best thing to do would be to do just what they're going to do. Direct the flow of players off of low-pops to higher pops in a way that EVERY server is healthy, neither dead nor queued. Look at Fatman. Every time there's a queue, everyone hears about it because NO ONE likes queues.

[JeramieCrowe]

Yes, but there is a huge problem with that which doesnt happen if merging. People that dont have active subs or are actively playing, what happens to their toons that are left behind on the servers that are transfered from?

 

In a merge all characters on a server automatically move to their new destination, no problem for people not having an active sub. If they intend to automatically transfer every character off to a new server it is infact merging, because the old server wont exist and just the target server will live on.

 

I keep saying over and over again that the proof of how well it works is already in the Rift pudding. The answer to this question is there, too.

 

Anyone inactive or left behind gets a server list to choose from when logging in, select the server, and voila done. Painless. Over.

 

And the player has a choice of which server to go to. Already superior to a merge. Besides the fact that every merge I've been a part of resulted in unplayability for such a large portion of players that TOR really can NOT afford that...

Edited May 13, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[jeffrico]

I keep saying over and over again that the proof of how well it works is already in the Rift pudding. The answer to this question is there, too.

 

Anyone inactive or left behind gets a server list to choose from when logging in, select the server, and voila done. Painless. Over.

 

And the player has a choice of which server to go to. Already superior to a merge. Besides the fact that every merge I've been a part of resulted in unplayability for such a large portion of players that TOR really can NOT afford that...

Where did BW say this is how it will work???? No where. All we know is free transfers come first, they will be directed. No mention of what servers to what servers yet. Claiming anything else is useless until BW releases more info, which I believe is what everyone wants.

 

Sure the technology behind the transfers is taking awhile to develop, but they could at least tell us what the plan for the directed transfers. The only info we have is a cryptic remark that "the most motivated customers will be able to get onto a high population server". I have my own interpretation of what the most motivated means (those willing to shell out the $$$) but it could mean anything.

[StrykerOne]

The problem is the pop loss as a % of total population is extremely high. They are losing 200k subs per month out of a population base of 1,300k. At that rate, within 3 months your population is nearly halved. Any restricted character transfer scheme is going to be overwhelmed by that population decay rate. Frankly the same problem exists with server mergers. You'd have to fold over and reduce servers every 3 months at least in order to keep them populated sufficiently.

 

If the people are quitting because of dead servers then fixing the population problems should stop a lot of the quitting and bring back a decent number of former players. And it's not like we'll keep losing 200k people a month anyway... plenty of people actually like the game as it stands now, and they will presumably be staying. Most of the people who don't like the game will leave in a short period of time, so the only way subs would keep dropping rapidly is if a whole bunch more people stopped liking the game each month, and that seems unlikely.

[Kubernetic]

The thing that gets me is how so many people can just overlook the fact that transfers are already in the game. To say there not is just blindness. They did it for the apacs. Now yes i understand that it needs to be scaled and modified to roll on all servers.

 

But the base system is infact there, And i gaurantee it isnt that big a step to take that base system and mod into open useage.

 

The real reason they dont already have it moded and released is because they know that once it is they will have to either merge or close some servers. As they are ghost towns now. So when the few remaining people on them servers can transfer they will go from ghost towns to pergatorys.

 

<...rest of post removed...>

 

I'm just curious as to how you're able to make this guarantee. Can you walk me through the data points you're using to arrive at that conclusion?

[Kubernetic]

The problem is the pop loss as a % of total population is extremely high. They are losing 200k subs per month out of a population base of 1,300k. At that rate, within 3 months your population is nearly halved. Any restricted character transfer scheme is going to be overwhelmed by that population decay rate. Frankly the same problem exists with server mergers. You'd have to fold over and reduce servers every 3 months at least in order to keep them populated sufficiently.

 

You can't just take the loss numbers and average them out per month and pretend that it is an accurate assessment. They could have lost 400k in one month after one patch.

 

They could have lost 600k prior to 1.2 and then gained 200k back with 1.2, and might actually be at a plateau or gaining subscribers (which would lead to Daniel Erickson saying they aren't "losing" customers).

 

There are a number of different ways those numbers can be changing, and without a month-to-month number, it's hard to say. All we know for sure is "they lost 400,000 subscribers from the last time we were given a subscriber number." Anything else is likely to be in error without more data.

[JeramieCrowe]

Where did BW say this is how it will work???? No where. All we know is free transfers come first, they will be directed. No mention of what servers to what servers yet. Claiming anything else is useless until BW releases more info, which I believe is what everyone wants.

 

Look through my posts. Anytime I specify what BioWare is likely to do, I use that word: "LIKELY". Assuming that it will be the worst possible scenario of free transfers from high-pops to low pops, while it is the "new cool" to do, is unrealistic given that the industry standard is to transfer OFF of low-pops for free and shut them down.

 

Sure the technology behind the transfers is taking awhile to develop, but they could at least tell us what the plan for the directed transfers. The only info we have is a cryptic remark that "the most motivated customers will be able to get onto a high population server". I have my own interpretation of what the most motivated means (those willing to shell out the $$$) but it could mean anything.

 

Again, it's a safe bet to go with the industry standard since BioWare is looking to industry standards with their game.

 

I will agree that maybe it was a good idea to actually state how it's going to work, since it's apparently the "new cool" to assume the worst first instead of assuming the industry standard...

Edited May 14, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[DGHelios]

Ok here is my thing, this may have been brought up already i didn't read all the many pages of posts on this but i wanted to get my word out there. I was contemplating switching server. (Even after taking a lot of time getting my main to 50) but, then i met a guild member and i was recruited. I now refuse to leave the server because of the guild i am in. they are my kind of people and peak my interests and help me with my first MMO experience. Will guild members (if they choose to)be able to transfer with their guild? that is a really big thing for me. Merger/ transfers are a great idea regardless, i just would be more opted to keep my sub if i could stay with my core group of players and friends.

[silvershadez]

Look through my posts. Anytime I specify what BioWare is likely to do, I use that word: "LIKELY". Assuming that it will be the worst possible scenario of free transfers from high-pops to low pops, while it is the "new cool" to do, is unrealistic given that the industry standard is to transfer OFF of low-pops for free and shut them down.

 

 

 

Again, it's a safe bet to go with the industry standard since BioWare is looking to industry standards with their game.

 

I will agree that maybe it was a good idea to actually state how it's going to work, since it's apparently the "new cool" to assume the worst first instead of assuming the industry standard...

 

Bioware created such a mess with their servers that there just ain't no easy solution.

 

There are numeral examples. We alle know that alot of those playing on the high or standard populated servers rerolled from a ghosttown. Alot of those people have lvl 50 toons on those ghosttown servers. Now what happens if we actually get free transfers? People will take their chance and give it a try, turning the current standard servers most likely in light servers, or the current high servers in standard servers if the transfers aren't avaiable for the current standard/high servers. The problem would still be the same and people will still be way too spread out between those servers.

 

Also not any standard populated server currently is a decent populated server, as the gap between standard and high is really huge. Biowares goal should be to get every server to atleast high or close to high population, as anything below just doesnt feel like it's an MMO at all.

 

Sorry but i just don't see any alternative way around merges. We currently have 30 servers just for the german subs, while i think that 4-5 servers would be totally enough. You try to argue with how good RIFT did it. Well i can tell you AION tried the merge way and it worked too. You had a nameplaceholder when you logged into the new server and a token in your inventory which would allow you to rename yourself once. It worked.

 

If we just get Transfers I predict that this would not help anyone at all. Transfer doesn't imply that they shutdown those ghosttowns. And they really need to shut down some (or better alot) of those servers for sure.

[Valperion]

Funny, how there is still no date announced.

* Did the devs ditch the game!?

[Tenceriker]

Funny, how there is still no date announced.

* Did the devs ditch the game!?

 

Nope, they are just negligent not abandoning the ship. However, with each day the problem goes unsolved the more people get agitated and the more people quit the game. It's like they want people to leave.

[Terelius]

Well, they might not have done character transfers but, certainly succeeded in transferring people to other games that are coming out (looking at Diablo 3 and GW2)