Character Transfer, Server Populations, and You (Part II)

[MMFalcon]

They have clearly stated that all the origin servers will be closed by/around the end of the month. People still holding out are living in fantasy land if they think they are getting new servers to transfer to or are going to stay in their own little fiefdom. Best case scenario (which I think is likely) is that all remaining origin server characters can transfer to any destination, since they have said they wouldn't force people to delete characters.

 

I don't see where it has been "clearly stated that all the origin servers will be closed by/around the end of the month" (unless you mean "locked" (to new players), which has already happened.) Although it may seem logical that dead servers will eventually be taken offline, that is not part of the current announcements. All they have announced is that automatic transfers will take place.

 

I called SWTOR Customer Service to ask what will happen to my origin-server characters when automatic transfers commence. (I cannot voluntarily transfer them without deleting characters on the destination server because I already have 8 characters there.) The representative explained that my characters will remain on the origin server, and I will be able to continue playing them on the origin server, desolate as the server may be.

Whatever Bioware plans to do with characters such as mine, locked in limbo on abandoned servers (my "own little fiefdom" ? I like it ), it will not be happening at the end of this month when automatic transfers are issued.

[MadBlue]

I called SWTOR Customer Service to ask what will happen to my origin-server characters when automatic transfers commence. (I cannot voluntarily transfer them without deleting characters on the destination server because I already have 8 characters there.) The representative explained that my characters will remain on the origin server, and I will be able to continue playing them on the origin server, desolate as the server may be.

 

Well, don't be disappointed if that doesn't turn out to be the case. Custserv might not know what will actually happen, or they may have been told not to say anything. If it is the case, though, that would probably mean that the next phase in the transfers is coming very soon after automatic transfers because they wouldn't transfer everyone they possibly could off the origin servers just to keep them available for play for characters they couldn't transfer.

Edited July 18, 2012 by MadBlue

[fptackle]

I refused to participate in the initial round of free Server Transfers in order to preserve my name in tact. Unlike many players, server population does not matter one whit to me as I chiefly am engaged by the splendid Bioware Storytelling and play primarily solo or with a single friend. I would have played this game (preferred it even) if it had been a single player game of Knights of the Old Republic III. I am definately more interested in maintaining my character concept I have imagined, rather than being swarmed with other players trying to mimic the WoW experience (which I did not enjoy or I would have stayed there).

 

I chose to stay on the dead server in order to keep my name. Now I am being told I will be forceably evicted and moved to the destination server against my will.

 

The way it was previously presented, those of us who made the choice to move would be treated as the second class citizens. There is no longer a choice. There is no longer a transfer, because there will no longer be two possible servers at the close of it. This is what is known as a Merger, and in a Server Merger, two servers and combined into a single server. Mine may be the inferior population server, but not no mistakes, I'm not leaving my server to go to another; my server is entirely combining with a second.

 

Every other company I have seen run Server Mergers has handled naming collision in a much more appropriate manner than Bioware did with their initial Optional Transfers, and I would like to point out that those of us who were given the option to stay behind and keep our names are now losing that option.

 

When SOE did Mergers with Everquest, and also with DC Universe Online, naming collision was resolved based upon Active Subscriptions being first priority. Somebody's new Free-to-15 Trial Character should not hijack my name when I am forceably ripped from my home. Neither should somebody who cancelled 5 months ago and has not returned. The customer you do have at this moment is more valuable than the customer that you could maybe have in the future. Do not gamble the subscriptions of the players who have stuck with you based on the value of 'maybe that other guy will come back later'. Reward loyalty.

 

For cases of two active subscribers placed in naming collision, any Character Investment way of deciding will be deemed fair. Highest level? Highest gear score? Most played time? Earliest Creation Date? I will begrudgingly surrender my name to anyone who exceeds me in any of those catagories; they would be justifyably as attached to their character as I am to mine. If I lose my name to an inactive account, or to somebody's level 1 GTN mule, or their Freebie Trial character, when I was denied my option to stay behind chained to my tree and hold onto my separate server, I am quitting. It's not an issue of name, but customer service.

 

I appreciate that you're trying to help, but when you close our servers, don't further punish us because we weren't the lucky 'destination' you drew out of the hat. If 2 or more servers are becoming 1, then it's a merger and it needs to be treatest as such.

[HarleysRule]

I don't see where it has been "clearly stated that all the origin servers will be closed by/around the end of the month" (unless you mean "locked" (to new players), which has already happened.) Although it may seem logical that dead servers will eventually be taken offline, that is not part of the current announcements. All they have announced is that automatic transfers will take place.

 

I called SWTOR Customer Service to ask what will happen to my origin-server characters when automatic transfers commence. (I cannot voluntarily transfer them without deleting characters on the destination server because I already have 8 characters there.) The representative explained that my characters will remain on the origin server, and I will be able to continue playing them on the origin server, desolate as the server may be.

Whatever Bioware plans to do with characters such as mine, locked in limbo on abandoned servers (my "own little fiefdom" ? I like it ), it will not be happening at the end of this month when automatic transfers are issued.

 

Yeah the announcement said later this summer not month, so my memory failed there, but why would there be automatic transfers if the servers were going to remain open?

[JetAten]

I kinda like the idea of having my own server all to myself. I think I'll fill up Jedi Covenant with characters so I get stuck on Eidolon Security.

[MMFalcon]

Yeah the announcement said later this summer not month, so my memory failed there, but why would there be automatic transfers if the servers were going to remain open?

 

I do not disagree with your deduction, HR. Something must eventually happen to move our remaining characters from the abandoned servers, I have little doubt. (And I was not contesting the time frame you indicated, merely the notion that any announcement had stated any server would be closed down.)

 

I only posted to report the confirmation I got from Customer Service that characters unable to be transferred now (voluntarily) will not somehow become deleted at the onset of the involuntary, automatic transfers at the end of July (or later this summer). Yes, it's minimally comforting, but I'm at least reassured my characters will not be deleted or frozen because I didn't transfer them before July 30.

Edited July 18, 2012 by MMFalcon

[danpen]

I do not disagree with your deduction, HR. Something must eventually happen to move our remaining characters from the abandoned servers, I have little doubt. (And I was not contesting the time frame you indicated, merely the notion that any announcement had stated any server would be closed down.)

 

I only posted to report the confirmation I got from Customer Service that characters unable to be transferred now (voluntarily) will not somehow become deleted at the onset of the involuntary, automatic transfers at the end of July (or later this summer). Yes, it's minimally comforting, but I'm at least reassured my characters will not be deleted or frozen because I didn't transfer them before July 30.

 

Yes when i loged on once this week i saw lodes were shut and locked.

[Kakgumu]

When are paid, open transfers going to be available?? I currently have my toons split across 2 different servers and I'd like to get them all together on the same server now. When can we expect this option to be available to us?

 

thanks,

Kakgumu

[CaptainScitch]

Both servers I have different legacy names that fit the factions as I'm a firm believer in faction loyalty, Darkside evil name, Lightside not so evil name, I was first hit with the fact when legacy came out in the first patch, that they like to force us into playing their way ie. need both Imp and Rep toons on a legacy to unlock ... then there is the fact unlike Swtor or WoW or CoH or ..... you have no options or choice where to play at any lvl .. you have 1 area that fits your lvl ...you must play there .. Swtor any planet any lvl .. at least 2 choices woulda been nice , but Republic Taris ..omg Swtor I could wait to leave Taris , then Rakghouls omg .... shoulda been left in Swtor blown up with Taris , but then we get more with patches .good reason to play Skyrim in April , I came back and my 2 servers that were always standard-heavy population are both on transfer list and both to same destination server *** ?? RPG is about choises ..... in a game driven story that is relying on choices Bio-ware seems to be removing all the choices and forcing our hands. I DON'T want to play on a high population server , spawns, gameplay and game quality are all reduced , all you have is more people spamming chat. I'm wondering what Bio-ware was even thinking closing soo many servers. many of which should have been on the destination server list to help bolster their numbers while not making people wait in Queue on the locked and already over populated servers, and what is their answer when all the people that left till the next expantion because they wanted flight sim space combat , there will be people returning to a broken disfunctional game with the friends they thought they had spread across servers like stars dust after the Big Bang. The answer is clear to me ..... no media support .. TV commersials .... Bio-ware/EA spam your game on TV and you will get costomers ... you fixed it .... now reinvite them to play. and give us choices again!!! Edited July 18, 2012 by CaptainScitch

[Assad_II]

With this thread now with more than 40 pages, it would be nice if Bioware (Courtney or Allison) could give us an update on how the automatic transfers will happen specially for those of us who already have 8 characters on the destination server.

 

It would also be nice to know what misterious functionality was added to support those automatic transfers.

[HarleysRule]

With this thread now with more than 40 pages, it would be nice if Bioware (Courtney or Allison) could give us an update on how the automatic transfers will happen specially for those of us who already have 8 characters on the destination server.

 

It would also be nice to know what misterious functionality was added to support those automatic transfers.

 

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if BW still doesn't know how they are going to handle it.

[danpen]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if BW still doesn't know how they are going to handle it.

 

What do you mean they will not know how to do it still that is not GOOD

[Goraflax]

Hello everyone,

 

Please discuss the Character Transfer, Server Populations, and You (Part II) community blog in this thread.

i agree! ive many high lv toons stuck on the server of there choice !! not mine !! the stuck toons have a legacy lv15 and tons of hours and money invested into game play and would LIKE to get 3 of them to my pvp server!! however BW never answers my question of when if EVER!! that might happen!! my sub runs out in 3 days and as of now i say here is my answer!! in 3 days it is END GAME time no renewal for me! why pay a sub when there is ZERO new content and my lv50 can not transfer out! was fun but was also a HUGE waste of time on a unpolished game that launched just to meet the needs of EA/BW greed! 1.2 and 1.3 are launch patches that should have been included at launch not half a year later !!! and with the $100 expansion 1.5 and only a 5 level cap upgrade its silly as any lv50 can pop lv55 in a day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GREED!!!! means lots of people leaveing SWTOR!!!!!!

Thank you!

i agree! ive many high lv toons stuck on the server of there choice !! not mine !! the stuck toons have a legacy lv15 and tons of hours and money invested into game play and would LIKE to get 3 of them to my pvp server!! however BW never answers my question of when if EVER!! that might happen!! my sub runs out in 3 days and as of now i say here is my answer!! in 3 days it is END GAME time no renewal for me! why pay a sub when there is ZERO new content and my lv50 can not transfer out! was fun but was also a HUGE waste of time on a unpolished game that launched just to meet the needs of EA/BW greed! 1.2 and 1.3 are launch patches that should have been included at launch not half a year later !!! and with the $100 expansion 1.5 and only a 5 level cap upgrade its silly as any lv50 can pop lv55 in a day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GREED!!!! means lots of people leaveing SWTOR for good !!! good bye god luck Edited July 18, 2012 by Goraflax

[HibashiraSakai]

Not that it hasn't been said a million times but if the volume counts, I'll put my 2 cents in.

 

I too am stuck. I have 2 toons on Sanctum of the Exalted. But I don't want to move them to Ebon Hawk. I want to move them to Begeren Colony (which incidentally is another xfer destination server) where my other toons are. Not able to make that move really stopped me from spending time on these two toons.

 

Please consider allowing us to choose destination server, even if it is just within the same pool as the current list.

[HibashiraSakai]

I do have 1 question.

 

With all the conjecture and speculation with name collision and losing beloved character names, do we actually know how bad the problem IS? As oppose to how bad it MIGHT be?

 

Part of support is an assessment based on facts, not philosophy. Yes, we know for a fact that there will be name collisions. But does anyone know for a fact how bad the situation is? My guess is none of the players do. Only Bioware has that data.

 

BW, any chance you will share? Because we might be wasting a lot of energy here yapping about some philosophical thing that isn't that common in the end. That might be 1 way to dial down the noise level.... Maybe?

[MMFalcon]

Yes when i loged on once this week i saw lodes were shut and locked.

 

Only locked to players without characters already on those servers ^

[Modredus]

I do have 1 question.

 

With all the conjecture and speculation with name collision and losing beloved character names, do we actually know how bad the problem IS? As oppose to how bad it MIGHT be?

 

Part of support is an assessment based on facts, not philosophy. Yes, we know for a fact that there will be name collisions. But does anyone know for a fact how bad the situation is? My guess is none of the players do. Only Bioware has that data.

 

BW, any chance you will share? Because we might be wasting a lot of energy here yapping about some philosophical thing that isn't that common in the end. That might be 1 way to dial down the noise level.... Maybe?

 

I did try that on the destination server for my characters remaining on the origin servers. After 8 attempts on each name, I gave up. There is no way I can keep their names, or even anything close. I guess I will have to completely rename them. Good bye to character identity. OBTW I did not think my names were very common, guess I was wrong.

 

I hope everyone has better luck than I did!

[MadBlue]

I do have 1 question.

 

With all the conjecture and speculation with name collision and losing beloved character names, do we actually know how bad the problem IS? As oppose to how bad it MIGHT be?

 

Part of support is an assessment based on facts, not philosophy. Yes, we know for a fact that there will be name collisions. But does anyone know for a fact how bad the situation is? My guess is none of the players do. Only Bioware has that data.

 

It's easy to see if a name is taken on a destination server by trying to create a character with that name. If the character creation screen tells you to choose another name, it's taken. People who haven't transferred yet because of the name issue have already done this and found that their names have been taken. That's why they haven't transferred. Also, hundreds of thousands of people transferred a month ago, and there are many people who had to change names. I doubt BioWare has the data on how many people have had to change their names, as it's really only an issue to people who have had to change their names.

[MadBlue]

It would also be nice to know what misterious functionality was added to support those automatic transfers.

 

It could be the megaserver technology that James Ohlen mentioned in an interview earlier this month. Or it could be more character slots - or both.

[Nauticaa]

Maybe Bioware is going to allow transfers to any server before the server merge. Wouldn't you prefer to have the choice of which server to move to instead of just being automatically transferred to a set server?

 

If you have any idea of where you want to end up, perhaps you should create characters on that server with the name you want. This will hold the name(s) for you until you are ready to transfer there. When the time comes delete the 1st level character and then apply for the transfer. This won't help with legacy name but at least you'll have your main character names.

[realcardician]

I just came back to the game after leveling a Smuggler to 50 and then taking a break (didn't cancel my subscription, just wasn't playing). I see now my server is completely dead and Bioware is going to merge servers. Ok, no big deal, I can see validity in that and they do have an awful lot of servers so a little consolidation makes sense.

 

I decide to maybe take advantage of the gifts they're giving and look into the transfer more. This is when I learn that there are like 5 destination servers that would be options for me, and at peak times every one of them is under Very Heavy load (some even Full once in awhile). This upsets me as despite it being an MMO, I despise the world being super crowded. In my opinion there are more negatives to it than positives. Much prefer a medium or standard population server. But none of my options are that light.

 

Alright, well let's at least try things out to see if perhaps I'm mistaken. I create a quick character on one of the destination servers. Obviously ones that hit Full are not options. I'm not paying to wait to play the game. So I go with one that is at Heavy. Go through the intro, walk into the starting area and what do I see? Dozens and dozens of other players running around and basically no mobs. I play a bit more but this is pretty much the way seems to be everywhere.

 

So, though I've had a subscription since launch, love the game and enjoy playing it, it looks like at the end of the month, or whenever they enact the forced transfer, I will be cancelling my subscription. I have no desire to play on such ridiculously over-crowded servers or I would have joined one in the first place. Having to compete for mobs, wait for respawns, etc. is not just my idea of fun. I'm honestly shocked that the transfer plans don't include leaving a few more servers open so that the populations can balance out and not be Heavy on every server. I mean don't they call it Standard for a reason? Is that not the desired server load?

 

Anyway, maybe I'm wrong and BW is planning to make an intelligent decision, but from everything I've been seeing it doesn't look like it. Also, what is the deal with them being so secretive and cagey? You'd think that we the subscribers, as the lifeblood of the game, would command a little bit more responsiveness and respect. All the people working on SWTOR have jobs because of us. Sure doesn't seem like they recognize that fact though.

[MadBlue]

I decide to maybe take advantage of the gifts they're giving and look into the transfer more. This is when I learn that there are like 5 destination servers that would be options for me, and at peak times every one of them is under Very Heavy load (some even Full once in awhile). This upsets me as despite it being an MMO, I despise the world being super crowded. In my opinion there are more negatives to it than positives. Much prefer a medium or standard population server. But none of my options are that light.

 

Honestly, it's not that bad. I transferred from Krayt Dragon to The Shadowlands, and Fleet (and starter planets - see below) aside, even at Full (which is most of the time at prime time), it's not like people are climbing all over one another. Well, there are often a lot of people doing dailies in the same place at the same time, but mobs don't take that long to respawn and doing dailies in a group helps.

 

Alright, well let's at least try things out to see if perhaps I'm mistaken. I create a quick character on one of the destination servers. Obviously ones that hit Full are not options. I'm not paying to wait to play the game. So I go with one that is at Heavy. Go through the intro, walk into the starting area and what do I see? Dozens and dozens of other players running around and basically no mobs. I play a bit more but this is pretty much the way seems to be everywhere.

 

Don't base it on that. SWTOR has a free trial now (levels 1-15) so the starter planets tend to have a lot more people there than normal. Also, you may be able to "shuttle" to a phase with fewer players (open the map and check on the bottom right to see if there are other phases).

 

If you're not sure if you want to stick around, I recommend transferring a character to check out the areas aside from starter planets and fleet. It'll give you a better idea of what the rest of the game is like. Oh, and don't be too discouraged if you have to change some character (or your legacy) names - a lot of us had to go through that.

Edited July 19, 2012 by MadBlue

[jediwarrio]

I like some who simply don't want to move to a Heavy or Full server and after the latest patch notes I contacted customer service by phone but they were unable to provide any more info but told me to make an in-game ticket which I did and suprise suprise I got the same answer that they don't have any more details on the automatic transfer.

 

I have no problem in actually moving. If I have to change either my toons name or my Legacy name then I'll change it. I have had years of experience in playing in full/heavy servers and I simply don't like it, it's a personal preference, and had hoped that BW would at least be more commnicative with me as a paying customer but for a couple of yrs now my trust in this company is at it's lowest.

 

So if the worse happens and they automatically transfer my toons to that specific server without any communication from them then sadly I'll have to cancel my sub and move on.

[realcardician]

If you're not sure if you want to stick around, I recommend transferring a character to check out the areas aside from starter planets and fleet. It'll give you a better idea of what the rest of the game is like. Oh, and don't be too discouraged if you have to change some character (or your legacy) names - a lot of us had to go through that.

 

Hmm, that is a very valid point you make that I hadn't taken into consideration. Maybe I'll proceed to some of the later planets and see how bad it is and make a decision then. Plus, since they have been so closed off about what exactly is going to happen, it is just speculation on my part to a degree. I'm still hoping I'll be pleasantly surprised and they'll handle this whole situation with a bit of common sense.

 

As for the names, fortunately I'm not too hung up on that. I can understand some people being upset about it but I could live with that. It's mostly just that I prefer my world to not be too crowded.

[SiriusVD]

For me at least, it is quickly becoming irrelevant whether they ever allow people to consolidate their characters on the same server.

 

My main toon that is "stuck" on another server is now lower level than my main toon on the server I play on. The only reason to want the "stuck" toon is to use the 200-ish epic artifice recipes. But the whole purpose of those was so that I could level all my alts and have great lightsabers/offhands while I leveled. Since I've now leveled all the toons I will probably ever play, that is no longer on the table.

 

That only leaves money making from the artificer. But by the time he's on the server I play on, I will be sick of playing the game, all my toons will be leveled and geared, and I won't need cash anymore.

 

So in a nutshell, all I lost was the first 6 months or so I spent playing this game. NO BIGGY RIGHT?

Edited July 19, 2012 by SiriusVD