Laurreth Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) I see a problem in automated merges if they're done naively by just shoving over all characters from the origin servers. It will lead to a lot of "lost" names from millions of characters that, frankly, nobody will ever play again. We're talking about a lot of "proper names", without the accents and other ways attempting to express the original intention. While I appreciate that it will frustrate some players if they return, I think that active and new players should be first in line for hassle-free names that can be typed without resorting to input method editors. IMO, it would be better for the players, if more complex to operate, to move all affected characters to "cold storage", and require players to transfer when reactivating them. Alternatively, all affected characters could have their names freed up, so that active players get dibs at them unless they're reactivated. As a small perk, reactivated characters could get a vanity title ("Hanns Olo, Cryosleeper"?) Edited July 13, 2012 by Laurreth "huge danger" is overstating it really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MajikMyst Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) I see a problem in automated merges if they're done naively by just shoving over all characters from the origin servers. It will lead to a lot of "lost" names from millions of characters that, frankly, nobody will ever play again. We're talking about a lot of "proper names", without the accents and other ways attempting to express the original intention. While I appreciate that it will frustrate some players if they return, I think that active and new players should be first in line for hassle-free names that can be typed without resorting to input method editors. IMO, it would be better for the players, if more complex to operate, to move all affected characters to "cold storage", and require players to transfer when reactivating them. Alternatively, all affected characters could have their names freed up, so that active players get dibs at them unless they're reactivated. As a small perk, reactivated characters could get a vanity title ("Hanns Olo, Cryosleeper"?) I am not sure I understand your idea.. Move all affected characters to cold storage?? What is an affected player?? Are you talking about the people that refused to transfer on their own?? Or just characters that were left on the old start servers?? The problem you are going to run into, is that there really is no reason to take a name from someone else and free it so someone else can use it.. I have a lvl 5 trooper that is mostly there to hold his name should I decide to actually make a trooper.. I may decide to use the name for something else later.. Who knows.. The point is, the name is mine and nobody can have it.. There is nothing wrong with people doing this.. People make name holders for a reason.. They work.. Yes.. Bioware has already announced that the remaining holdouts on a start server will be moved to their respective destination servers.. If there is a naming conflict.. It will be the same as if they transfered the character themselves.. When they log in, they will have to pick a new name.. There is nothing wrong with that.. There are plenty of creative ways to tweak a name to still use it.. People need to spend less time here QQ about their name in a video game and more time actually being creative and making up a good name.. I transfered 5 characters.. Including my little trooper.. I didn't have to change or tweak a single name.. I made no changes to my names.. None.. Being creative has it's perks.. Or simply having a naming convention.. Or in my case, a website that generates Star Wars names.. I just mixed and match from those.. Anything is better than trying to find a free spelling of Bastila, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, or some other name from the movies.. There is absolutely no reason or arguement to take a name from someone else and give it to someone who was just moved or transfered to the server.. Edited July 13, 2012 by MajikMyst Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurreth Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 I am not sure I understand your idea.. Move all affected characters to cold storage?? What is an affected player?? Are you talking about the people that refused to transfer on their own?? Or just characters that were left on the old start servers?? Affected players would be accounts that did not participate in the transfers, so everyone hit by a forced transfer. At this point, we're probably talking about the characters from what, a Million accounts, sitting around on servers that will be retired. A good part of those characters will never be played again, so what would be the point of keeping them colliding with things that are yet to come? I am not talking about immediately taking names from active players (nor inactive players really), but about making names from inactive accounts and of unplayed characters available. As long as nobody created a new character with your name, you could log in and never know that anything happened; all you'd need to do to keep your names is logging in once after the merge. Effectively, it means that a character would only be transferred to a destination server once it's actively played again. That process could be totally transparent to the player, but it would keep the dead wood off the active servers, while rewarding people who pick up the game (again). The only difference to a "dumb" merge would be that there's no level 5 character that hasn't been played since early February, from some long-dead server, blocking a name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sendai_S Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Yes.. Bioware has already announced that the remaining holdouts on a start server will be moved to their respective destination servers.. Ok, wait? What? When did they say this? Because my destination server was already full of my new characters I had been playing while waiting to move my other characters off my old server. Then in their infinite wisdom they only assigned one destination server to one origin server instead of at least giving alternate choices if the destination server was lready occupied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyersfan Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 ("Hanns Olo, Cryosleeper"?) I would report this name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucyfer_Infinity Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 If i ever take a break from this game and come back to see any of my names gone, i will dump it and never come back without any regrets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MajikMyst Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Ok, wait? What? When did they say this? . Server population and you.. Later this summer, any remaining characters on selected origin servers will be automatically moved to designated destination servers. We will provide additional details regarding the automatic character transfer process at that time. That is where they said that.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MajikMyst Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Affected players would be accounts that did not participate in the transfers, so everyone hit by a forced transfer. At this point, we're probably talking about the characters from what, a Million accounts, sitting around on servers that will be retired. A good part of those characters will never be played again, so what would be the point of keeping them colliding with things that are yet to come? First of all you are making a lot of assumptions.. We all know what assumptions are.. 2nd your count is way off.. It will be nowhere near a million people.. Bioware has also stated that they will never delete accounts.. So it doesn't matter if they will bne played again or not.. As I said in my first post.. Any confilct will simply be dealt with the exact same way they are dealt with now.. Players who move to the new server must pick a new name if there is a conflict.. People have had enough notice about this.. This isn't something new that has been sprung on us.. All the servers are currently locked to new players.. (Except all the servers designated as a destination server..) For the U.S, that means all but about 10 servers are locked.. Locked means that new players can't make a new character on those servers.. Also current players can't a new character on those servers, unless you still have a character on that server. The bottom line here is simply this.. Bioware should NEVER under any circumstance take a name or free a name for use by someone else.. The level of the character doesn't matter and the status of the account doesn't matter.. You never know when someone might come back or why they are gone in the first place.. They should also never make assumptions about people's accounts either.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurreth Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 The bottom line here is simply this.. Bioware should NEVER under any circumstance take a name or free a name for use by someone else.. Again, I'm most definitely NOT talking about blindly "taking away" something. That is also not what I am proposing. The idea is to avoid swamping the namespace on the destination servers in a rather polite way that puts the comfort of existing and new players over those who are inactive. Think of it as a "need vs. greed" approach; if you actively transfer now, or log in after the merge just once, you win the roll. Bioware have generated enough publicity around the transfers, and are now running a weekend for former players to check out the new stuff For Free*. At some point, it should be rather safe to assume that someone isn't coming back, and while we might not be talking about a Million people, it's still safe to assume that it's a large number of players and characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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