New Server Labels on the Launcher and a question.

[Juravael]

Hi there,

I just got home from work and when loading the launcher I noticed that the servers now have different labels.
It was not like this the other day, there was a discussion on this in another thread and a few people (myself included) checked their launcher list and it had not been changed as of then.

As of right now Landroval, my server, is listed as : Landroval [US RP]

This makes me very excited. I had been wondering if we would in fact be changed from Roleplay Encouraged (RE) to an enforced roleplay (RP) server since Laurelin, which is being moved back to Europe, was the only official RP server.

Is Landroval going to be the official US RP server?

It is my hope that Landroval will become the official US RP server and enforce a stricter naming policy going forward.

[teppic74]

My guess is that Turbine will rotate the recommended servers across the more populated ones to help spread out new players a bit. Crickhollow wasn't the recommended one for long (about a month?), and it changed to Evernight - now Evernight [EU] - on Thursday.

Since transfers between NA/EU servers doesn't appear to be happening, it was pretty safe to assume that Landroval and Laurelin would be the designated RP servers for both zones.

[soltasword]

Well, I hope it stays as it is really. Don't want people being forced to change their names after all this time as that would lead to many people leaving the game altogether. Believe me that would happen. It might, as well, turn people off from playing on this server and we see a much lower population than we have now. We want to encourage people to play the game not discourage them so they don't. If we had more players, then things like raids and instances, full xpacs, things done at only level 100 that should be done for the entire game, not to mention the housing update that was cancelled, would still be going strong. I know a lot of people like to role play but lets not have it forced upon us. Let us just leave it as the role play encouraged server that it has always been.

[TaSwavo4God]

A problem, of course, comes from when they moved all servers to USA when they took the game from CodeMasters. For some of those who joined a server (after that time) that has now hopped across the Atlantic will tend to find the number of people in their time zone decreases as time goes by.

For example, I'm in the UK. The game suggested I join Vilya. So I did and most of my play/characters are there.
Now their are specific EU servers, most new people from UK will tend to join them...

Or if an American joined a server that has now moved to the EU, the number of Americans that will now join that server will be much, much smaller.
It won't affect everyone, but for those it will affect, it could be bad

I certainly won't be moving from Vilya because I've met lots of nice people and those not in my timezone I meet at the weekends. But for some it could be rough.

[Vyvyanne]

Landroval should be US-RE. It was a typo and should be fixed shortly. We will not be changing the Roleplay status of any servers from what they have been. Otherwise we have placed the EU and US tags on the servers in order to prepare for moving the EU servers from the US to Amsterdam so that players know what region their server is located in. Also because the transfer service will prevent EU to US transfers and vice versa, so it is easier to know where you are playing and where you might be able to transfer to.

[Tikayo]

Also because the transfer service will prevent EU to US transfers and vice versa, so it is easier to know where you are playing and where you might be able to transfer to.

So... I rolled on Landroval as it was the only RP-EN server and all servers were US based - with the split, as a UK player obviously an EU server would be more appropriate, but will I not be able to transfer to an EU server but have to re-roll all characters?

And the US then don't have a RP-enforced server and the EU lose the RP-encouraged server?

[Newsmen]

So you close the server without the EU. ?

[Vyvyanne]

Nothing has changed in the way the worlds function or are supported. Players can still play on the worlds they wish to play on regardless of the region they are in. Transfers only work from EU to EU and US to US, that is the way it has always been and is not changing even after we improve the transfer service. All we have done is exposed this information more readily in the launcher.

If you are currently playing on a US world, you can continue to do so. However, if you decide you would like to play on an EU world then you would have to start a new character. Same with players playing on EU worlds who want to play on US.

[Tuco]

So... I rolled on Landroval as it was the only RP-EN server and all servers were US based - with the split, as a UK player obviously an EU server would be more appropriate, but will I not be able to transfer to an EU server but have to re-roll all characters?

And the US then don't have a RP-enforced server and the EU lose the RP-encouraged server?

Laurelin was the only English-language RP-enforced server up until yesterday's typo, and it will be again after the Landy typo is repaired. Landroval was RE (RP encouraged) or RE-US. When the servers move to EU you could get a better ping by rerolling on Laurelin, but if you've been happy with your link performance and community on Landroval I wouldn't expect you to see much of a difference -- perhaps a bit more company than you're used to after the --- what's the opposite of "diaspora"? "Aliyah", or is that just for Israel?

If you rolled on Landroval when and because it was an RP server, then you only have a day or two of experience to relive when you reroll... not too onerous.

[Jewl_of_the_lake]

A problem, of course, comes from when they moved all servers to USA when they took the game from CodeMasters. For some of those who joined a server (after that time) that has now hopped across the Atlantic will tend to find the number of people in their time zone decreases as time goes by.

For example, I'm in the UK. The game suggested I join Vilya. So I did and most of my play/characters are there.
Now their are specific EU servers, most new people from UK will tend to join them...

Or if an American joined a server that has now moved to the EU, the number of Americans that will now join that server will be much, much smaller.
It won't affect everyone, but for those it will affect, it could be bad

I certainly won't be moving from Vilya because I've met lots of nice people and those not in my timezone I meet at the weekends. But for some it could be rough.

Where your located in the world does not play into the recommended server at the time. They rotate monthly.

[Juravael]

Landroval should be US-RE. It was a typo and should be fixed shortly. We will not be changing the Roleplay status of any servers from what they have been. Otherwise we have placed the EU and US tags on the servers in order to prepare for moving the EU servers from the US to Amsterdam so that players know what region their server is located in. Also because the transfer service will prevent EU to US transfers and vice versa, so it is easier to know where you are playing and where you might be able to transfer to.

Thank you for the reply, Vyvyanne.

I was hoping that Landroval would become the official US RP server. Since you are saying that it will not be, which server will become the official US RP enforced server?

It doesn't seem fair that EU, DE and FR all get an official RP enforced server but the US will not have one now.

[djheydt]

Thank you for the reply, Vyvyanne.

I was hoping that Landroval would become the official US RP server. Since you are saying that it will not be, which server will become the official US RP enforced server?

It doesn't seem fair that EU, DE and FR all get an official RP enforced server but the US will not have one now.

EU had RP-enforced servers before the original move of the EU
servers to the US. The US never had an RP-enforced server, only
RP-encouraged. I suspect that isn't going to change now.

[Hayden102]

Nothing has changed in the way the worlds function or are supported. Players can still play on the worlds they wish to play on regardless of the region they are in. Transfers only work from EU to EU and US to US, that is the way it has always been and is not changing even after we improve the transfer service. All we have done is exposed this information more readily in the launcher.

If you are currently playing on a US world, you can continue to do so. However, if you decide you would like to play on an EU world then you would have to start a new character. Same with players playing on EU worlds who want to play on US.

Vy, can you check out

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...South-Africans

thanks.

[Erennor]

Nothing has changed in the way the worlds function or are supported. Players can still play on the worlds they wish to play on regardless of the region they are in. Transfers only work from EU to EU and US to US, that is the way it has always been and is not changing even after we improve the transfer service. All we have done is exposed this information more readily in the launcher.

If you are currently playing on a US world, you can continue to do so. However, if you decide you would like to play on an EU world then you would have to start a new character. Same with players playing on EU worlds who want to play on US.

Ever since the announcement that the former EU worlds will be going back to EU, this has been one of the most often minsconceptions here on the forums (and likely enough in-game too). But as you say now and as you have said before, this is only a physical move. The servers will still be run by Turbine and be here available for all to play. If one wants to play on those servers he will have to create a new character as transfers between former US and EU worlds are not available. But this has ever been so, so nothing changes. And yet people see this as something new.

Vyvyanne, is it not wise to have this information stickied (or/and adding it in the announcement of the server-transfers) so that true information keeps flowing? Pray, do so Vyvyanne, it is needed it seems.

[Scirocco]

Ever since the announcement that the former EU worlds will be going back to EU, this has been one of the most often minsconceptions here on the forums (and likely enough in-game too). But as you say now and as you have said before, this is only a physical move. The servers will still be run by Turbine and be here available for all to play. If one wants to play on those servers he will have to create a new character as transfers between former US and EU worlds are not available. But this has ever been so, so nothing changes. And yet people see this as something new.

Vyvyanne, is it not wise to have this information stickied (or/and adding it in the announcement of the server-transfers) so that true information keeps flowing? Pray, do so Vyvyanne, it is needed it seems.

Look at the stickied thread at the top of this page...

[moxieblossom]

I was hoping that Landroval would become the official US RP server. Since you are saying that it will not be, which server will become the official US RP enforced server?

It doesn't seem fair that EU, DE and FR all get an official RP enforced server but the US will not have one now.

Time for a history lesson...

When LotRO originally launched, there were no RP servers in the US. Turbine's thought process was that they considered all of the servers roleplay-friendly, so they opted to not label any of the servers specifically for RP (or anything else, really).

In the meantime, during beta, the roleplay community that was coming together during beta decided that an unofficial RP server should be named. The community decided on Landroval as the unofficial RP server. Elendilmir was named as the unofficial Oceanic server, Meneldor I believe became the unofficial PvP server.

Across the pond, Codemasters was running the EU servers differently. They named an Official RP server - Laurelin. When the EU servers moved out from under Codemasters and into Turbine's control, they opted to leave all of the existing label structures for both the EU and US servers intact. Players at that time had been asking for Landroval to be named the official RP server for a while, but Turbine didn't want to alienate the non-RPers on Landroval or any RPers on the other servers. So, as a compromise, they named Landroval the RP-Encouraged server.

I don't hold out hope of there being an official RP server for the US servers, but if you are looking for the US RP community, Landroval is definitely your server, with or without the label.

[Juravael]

Thanks Moxie. I was not aware of the previous changes that the servers had gone through over the years. I started in 2011, took a break and our gaming group just came back a couple of months ago.
Our concern is not so much the server label, as much as the naming policy in place on the regular and RP enforced servers.

I was hoping for that enforcement on my server or a designated US RP server I could transfer to once the free transfers get underway.

It may just be me and my friends that I game with noticing this but some of the names that have been popping up in chat lately is getting worse and worse, and it is no coincidence that the attitudes of many of those folks is poor. It just feels like the friendly, helpful, and great community on Landroval is beginning to suffer from all of the people transferring there from other servers already. What's it going to be like once the free transfers begin? When there are names like : bigmacncheese, cupofsoup, pacmanfever, jacksonfive, and so forth running around and flooding chat it really takes away from the overall gaming experience and atmosphere one expects from a roleplay server.

None of the names I used above as examples are actual players that we have seen, but close variants of actual names that we have seen.
We've reported many names but it sure seems like nothing gets done about it unfortunately.

[Macdui]

Nothing has changed in the way the worlds function or are supported. Players can still play on the worlds they wish to play on regardless of the region they are in. Transfers only work from EU to EU and US to US, that is the way it has always been and is not changing even after we improve the transfer service. All we have done is exposed this information more readily in the launcher.

If you are currently playing on a US world, you can continue to do so. However, if you decide you would like to play on an EU world then you would have to start a new character. Same with players playing on EU worlds who want to play on US.

Very disappointing news. I'm told you were brought in to make this change due to DDO experience with server merges. I imagine you've been somewhat stunned by the news that the utopia of everyone being able to play on a geographically preferred server has been quashed.

We've never been told in what way the databases are incompatible, have you been told? The ether is awash with Googolplexes of data moving around and you are unable to port data from one data structure to another. It's a sad start, maybe someone else as EP could reverse this decision. It not rocket science, you have to know the structure of each database, which fields might conflict and come up with a query. Okay the query might be nearing rocket science difficulty but perfectly reasonable. But if you don't know how it could be done and have been told why it can't be done, please tell us.

Mac

[Dordain]

Very disappointing news. I'm told you were brought in to make this change due to DDO experience with server merges. I imagine you've been somewhat stunned by the news that the utopia of everyone being able to play on a geographically preferred server has been quashed.

We've never been told in what way the databases are incompatible, have you been told? The ether is awash with Googolplexes of data moving around and you are unable to port data from one data structure to another. It's a sad start, maybe someone else as EP could reverse this decision. It not rocket science, you have to know the structure of each database, which fields might conflict and come up with a query. Okay the query might be nearing rocket science difficulty but perfectly reasonable. But if you don't know how it could be done and have been told why it can't be done, please tell us.

Mac

Come on, don't be *that* rude about it.

And the answer is, of course, money. It would cost them too much money to figure it out.

[Tikayo]

Nothing has changed in the way the worlds function or are supported. Players can still play on the worlds they wish to play on regardless of the region they are in. Transfers only work from EU to EU and US to US, that is the way it has always been and is not changing even after we improve the transfer service. All we have done is exposed this information more readily in the launcher.

If you are currently playing on a US world, you can continue to do so. However, if you decide you would like to play on an EU world then you would have to start a new character. Same with players playing on EU worlds who want to play on US.

l
When I started in October, there was a list of servers to choose from. Some were labelled FR and DE for language, the rest were not labelled apart from Laurelin RP and Landroval RP-EN. There was no indication of a hidden EU/US grouping. Are you suggesting newer players should have read up on years of convoluted technical history before choosing a server rather than working with the seemingly straightforward information and choices presented to them?

For those who are about to suggest that it's only a few months and to re-roll, I would lose hours and hours of play and the money spent of those characters. Characters I can't simply recreate as their names are not all available on the EU-RP server, and money I won't get back.

If there was a significant difference in server choice it should have been made clear from the start, and remained clear after the previous server migration/merger. "All servers based in the US" was the information available unless you were playing at the time, not "all servers based in the US but in two non-compatible clusters".

[ertr]

l
When I started in October, there was a list of servers to choose from. Some were labelled FR and DE for language, the rest were not labelled apart from Laurelin RP and Landroval RP-EN. There was no indication of a hidden EU/US grouping. Are you suggesting newer players should have read up on years of convoluted technical history before choosing a server rather than working with the seemingly straightforward information and choices presented to them?

For those who are about to suggest that it's only a few months and to re-roll, I would lose hours and hours of play and the money spent of those characters. Characters I can't simply recreate as their names are not all available on the EU-RP server, and money I won't get back.

If there was a significant difference in server choice it should have been made clear from the start, and remained clear after the previous server migration/merger. "All servers based in the US" was the information available unless you were playing at the time, not "all servers based in the US but in two non-compatible clusters".

No matter which server you chose you can continue playing on that one, unless it turns out to be one of those who will be closed.
There is no need to re-roll or anything like that.

[Grimdi]

If you are currently playing on a US world, you can continue to do so. However, if you decide you would like to play on an EU world then you would have to start a new character. Same with players playing on EU worlds who want to play on US.

So basically EU-players that have their characters on a US server will be screwed in the long run as new players will be directed to their corresponding regional servers, so US servers will over time run dry during EU prime times. Or will one/some servers with US database format be recommended for EU players as well (ignoring latency issues)?

[Marancil]

RE?

Roleplay Encouraged? Are you saying that in case of transfers we need to consider our gaming style to land on a server that allow you the play the game as you see fit, and not encouraged to do something else?

[ertr]

So basically EU-players that have their characters on a US server will be screwed in the long run as new players will be directed to their corresponding regional servers, so US servers will over time run dry during EU prime times. Or will one/some servers with US database format be recommended for EU players as well (ignoring latency issues)?

If you hadn't noticed the prime times on most servers are already highly dependent on if it is an EU or US server.
The old EU servers are busiest during EU prime time, while the old US servers are busiest during US prime time, so any players that started to play over the last couple of years already ran the risk of choosing a server that was mostly empty during their own prime time.

In short, the problems already exist. Moving some servers to EU are not going to make them noticably worse.

[ertr]

RE?

Roleplay Encouraged? Are you saying that in case of transfers we need to consider our gaming style to land on a server that allow you the play the game as you see fit, and not encouraged to do something else?

Hasn't that always been the case? You can play the game in whatever way you see fit on any server, as long as you don't bother other people who play in whatever way they see fit.
If you want to find other people who play the game in the same way as you, then you will indeed need to choose your server accordingly. Nothing new there.