Why no more updates on the transfers/server closures?

[Thorgrum]

I've just sort of decided that while I am still having fun in the game (and I am!), I'm just going to continue to enjoy myself and deal with what happens whenever it comes.

Fantastic approach and one that will garner you the best possible outcome. Cheers, very rare to see this.

[Hammadryad]

I thought you had made a decision already...





Do us a favour Podgie and get your story straight.

Cheers

In the first place, if I am wavering about playing or not playing that is none of your business, I have been playing Lotro for years and quitting is like trying to quit smoking.

In the second place, I am not Podgie. I know Podgie, I have even posted some stuff on his behalf since he got a lifetime ban for daring to argue with a certain moderator who shall remain nameless! I have played with him and Wof and a nicer couple of people I have never met, they always have time to help out others and are a pleasure to group with. He still plays on Gilrain sometimes, although his opinion of these forums and some of the people who frequent them is unprintable. I haven't seen Wof in a while though, nor has anyone else in the kin.

[Galadhloth]

Fantastic approach and one that will garner you the best possible outcome. Cheers, very rare to see this.

Why thank you, that's very kind

[Thorgrum]

Why thank you, that's very kind

I'm trying to work on being a more pleasant person on the forums. You are the experimental run.

[Galadhloth]

I'm trying to work on being a more pleasant person on the forums. You are the experimental run.

Well I'd say you're doing very well so far! Happy to be your guinea pig for a project like this.

[elderlygamer]

I too would like to ask about time estimates, at least for notifying people ahead of time. If some servers are going to be closed, it would help those who play less often to have plenty of time (months?) to find out about the transfers by word of mouth or an occasional forum visit. Some people don't subscribe to the promo emails and some of your emails undoubtedly get automatically filtered erroneously into the spam folder, so email isn't always reliable for passing along important info.

[Vyvyanne]

Hi all,

My apologies for being off the forums these last few weeks. I have been extremely busy.

Progress is coming along on both the new transfer from launcher feature as well as new hardware setups. Hopefully in a week or two we can post more details on the new server transfer features such as the multiple character moves, the guild disband and re-formation and naming conflict changes.

For now I will say we have at least a couple more months before all of this gets underway. I wanted to get the transfers started towards the closer end of that, but then based on feedback and research into performance concerns, have decided to wait until we have our new hardware in place so as not to cause undue stress on already highly populated worlds. Due to snow and some other set backs we do not expect new hardware to be online until summer. Thus the timeline is pushed back a bit.

For those concerned about notice for server closures. We will be providing at least a couple months notice for players on which servers might close before that happens. We have lots of time and will make sure you have all the information you need to prepare before anything happens.

-Vyvyanne

[Boskone08]

Thank you for the update, Vyvyanne! I think the check-out of the new hardware before reaching a final decision on server closures is appropriate. New hardware always comes with glowing performance reports, but until it's tried with a specific software product, it's all estimated/projected/expected - nice in theory but not quite solid. Once the hardware is in place, the vendor confirms it has checked out and Turbine get to test it with your own applications, it just is not real. I feel confidant that a suitable test program for each Turbine application will be developed (for LotRO, perhaps a few weeks of Bullroarer on a new hardware platform; perhaps something else), load/performance parameters determined and a set of target populations (target min, target max, hard maximum perhaps?) are established, then the final determination of servers to be closed can take place.

A couple of months warning to allow planning, then perhaps a 30 to 60 day transfer period would be nice and likely get things done in a November/December time frame.

[bucko39]

Hi all,

My apologies for being off the forums these last few weeks. I have been extremely busy.

Progress is coming along on both the new transfer from launcher feature as well as new hardware setups. Hopefully in a week or two we can post more details on the new server transfer features such as the multiple character moves, the guild disband and re-formation and naming conflict changes.

For now I will say we have at least a couple more months before all of this gets underway. I wanted to get the transfers started towards the closer end of that, but then based on feedback and research into performance concerns, have decided to wait until we have our new hardware in place so as not to cause undue stress on already highly populated worlds. Due to snow and some other set backs we do not expect new hardware to be online until summer. Thus the timeline is pushed back a bit.

For those concerned about notice for server closures. We will be providing at least a couple months notice for players on which servers might close before that happens. We have lots of time and will make sure you have all the information you need to prepare before anything happens.

-Vyvyanne

Thanks for the update, is it safe to say that Update 16 will now be released before the server changes start taking place?

[Brinswith]

Thanks for the update, is it safe to say that Update 16 will now be released before the server changes start taking place?

I think that was always a given.

[Eirika]

Hi all,

My apologies for being off the forums these last few weeks. I have been extremely busy.

Progress is coming along on both the new transfer from launcher feature as well as new hardware setups. Hopefully in a week or two we can post more details on the new server transfer features such as the multiple character moves, the guild disband and re-formation and naming conflict changes.

For now I will say we have at least a couple more months before all of this gets underway. I wanted to get the transfers started towards the closer end of that, but then based on feedback and research into performance concerns, have decided to wait until we have our new hardware in place so as not to cause undue stress on already highly populated worlds. Due to snow and some other set backs we do not expect new hardware to be online until summer. Thus the timeline is pushed back a bit.

For those concerned about notice for server closures. We will be providing at least a couple months notice for players on which servers might close before that happens. We have lots of time and will make sure you have all the information you need to prepare before anything happens.

-Vyvyanne

Thanks for the update Vyvyanne - it is much appreciated. I look forward to hearing more. My only concern in all of this is that the larger servers will get flooded when the free transfers are available. Are there plans to limit transfer to already full-ish servers? I realise that may not be possible or even part of the plan...just checking :-)

Lothhil, BW

[Eirika]

I'm trying to work on being a more pleasant person on the forums. You are the experimental run.

I am enjoying your 'experiment' - thank you. :-)

Lothhil, BW

[Leixy]

Speaking as a Brandywine player, I agree, we don't want to be swamped with players from closed down servers.

I'm very happy the server upgrades will occur before the closures. If the new hardware can handle it, sure, but right now, I just don't think BW can handle that type of influx.

[Fatty]

Hi all,

My apologies for being off the forums these last few weeks. I have been extremely busy.

Progress is coming along on both the new transfer from launcher feature as well as new hardware setups. Hopefully in a week or two we can post more details on the new server transfer features such as the multiple character moves, the guild disband and re-formation and naming conflict changes.

For now I will say we have at least a couple more months before all of this gets underway. I wanted to get the transfers started towards the closer end of that, but then based on feedback and research into performance concerns, have decided to wait until we have our new hardware in place so as not to cause undue stress on already highly populated worlds. Due to snow and some other set backs we do not expect new hardware to be online until summer. Thus the timeline is pushed back a bit.

For those concerned about notice for server closures. We will be providing at least a couple months notice for players on which servers might close before that happens. We have lots of time and will make sure you have all the information you need to prepare before anything happens.

-Vyvyanne

Is there any chance of US-to-EU server transfer ever happening?

[Dmira]

Hi all,

My apologies for being off the forums these last few weeks. I have been extremely busy.

Progress is coming along on both the new transfer from launcher feature as well as new hardware setups. Hopefully in a week or two we can post more details on the new server transfer features such as the multiple character moves, the guild disband and re-formation and naming conflict changes.

For now I will say we have at least a couple more months before all of this gets underway. I wanted to get the transfers started towards the closer end of that, but then based on feedback and research into performance concerns, have decided to wait until we have our new hardware in place so as not to cause undue stress on already highly populated worlds. Due to snow and some other set backs we do not expect new hardware to be online until summer. Thus the timeline is pushed back a bit.

For those concerned about notice for server closures. We will be providing at least a couple months notice for players on which servers might close before that happens. We have lots of time and will make sure you have all the information you need to prepare before anything happens.

-Vyvyanne

Thank you for the update, Vyvyanne. This is exactly what I wanted to know. Now I can move forward with developing my characters while knowing nothing major will happen until the second half of the year. I am looking very forward to hearing more about how conflicting names will be handled. Take care, and may the hardward upgrade go smoothly.

[Vyvyanne]

U16 will indeed happen before any transfer changes. In fact this is one of the reasons we have had little to talk about. With the pushing out of hardware updates, I have had engineers refocus on helping complete U16 initiatives like the Legendary Items Upgrades and come back to transfer improvements once that is locked in. But more to come on that soon as we start ramping up U16 testing and telling you all about it.

Sadly it does not look like EU <-> US Transfers will be possible. You can always start a new character on any world you wish to play on, regardless of region, but we will not be able to support moving an already created character from an EU database to US and vice versa.

[maartena]

U16 will indeed happen before any transfer changes. In fact this is one of the reasons we have had little to talk about. With the pushing out of hardware updates, I have had engineers refocus on helping complete U16 initiatives like the Legendary Items Upgrades and come back to transfer improvements once that is locked in. But more to come on that soon as we start ramping up U16 testing and telling you all about it.

Sadly it does not look like EU <-> US Transfers will be possible. You can always start a new character on any world you wish to play on, regardless of region, but we will not be able to support moving an already created character from an EU database to US and vice versa.

Thank you very much for the updates Vyvyanne!

Could you tip the veil a little bit on how naming conflicts (both kinship and characters) are going to be handled? There are people concerned that they are forced to lose a name, because their server will be shut down.

[DiogoVP]

Sadly it does not look like EU <-> US Transfers will be possible. You can always start a new character on any world you wish to play on, regardless of region, but we will not be able to support moving an already created character from an EU database to US and vice versa.

What about character copy from an EU to an US server and vice versa? Maybe somehow reading your toon's attributes like deed and quests completed, traits, items in the inventory and vault, race, appearance, name and creating a toon with the exact same attributes in this new server. Would that be feasible?

[Bulbous]

Could you tip the veil a little bit on how naming conflicts (both kinship and characters) are going to be handled?

That's be some nice info. Having characters running around named Grapefruit-1 is pretty annoying.

[Mzrts12]

Hi all,

My apologies for being off the forums these last few weeks. I have been extremely busy.

Progress is coming along on both the new transfer from launcher feature as well as new hardware setups. Hopefully in a week or two we can post more details on the new server transfer features such as the multiple character moves, the guild disband and re-formation and naming conflict changes.

For now I will say we have at least a couple more months before all of this gets underway. I wanted to get the transfers started towards the closer end of that, but then based on feedback and research into performance concerns, have decided to wait until we have our new hardware in place so as not to cause undue stress on already highly populated worlds. Due to snow and some other set backs we do not expect new hardware to be online until summer. Thus the timeline is pushed back a bit.

For those concerned about notice for server closures. We will be providing at least a couple months notice for players on which servers might close before that happens. We have lots of time and will make sure you have all the information you need to prepare before anything happens.

-Vyvyanne

quick questions what plans do you have for when doing a complete server transfer to a server where you already have characters?

[Eirika]

What about character copy from an EU to an US server and vice versa? Maybe somehow reading your toon's attributes like deed and quests completed, traits, items in the inventory and vault, race, appearance, name and creating a toon with the exact same attributes in this new server. Would that be feasible?

Hello, I am pretty sure that is what a character transfer is...a copy moved to a new server .

Lothhil

[Schmidster]

May I just say, thank you to the OP for asking this. I tend to wait for more information about the game, this game, which has never been one to communicate week-by-week developments. Yet, by asking, you got some more information!

Thank you.

I know folks have asked this many times, but maybe a monthly post by the Devs would make us happy.

Cheers

[afferas]

Well its good to know that turbine are still working on the server transfers, not getting distracted like some old companies I could name

[Nimdraug]

Vyvyanne,

If you're still checking these, then thank you, and the team, first of all. I've been playing this game for 5 years, and though I wasn't a pioneer, I have thoroughly enjoyed it to this day.

As I've read this, and several other threads, many of my questions have been answered. Thank you again for being involved and informative to this effect.

I am still curious about a few things, however, and would greatly appreciate any feedback:

What will be lost with the transfers? Will there be any kind of conversion or compensation like in the past?

I've come to realize I really don't know many members of the team. Is there a way to learn about those who are working on all these things?

Is the company doing well, and what does the sustainability of Lotro for future years look like?

Are the server locations being moved from Boston, or rather...if they are, have you decided where?

If any of these are off topic or unanswerable, I understand, and apologize if at all inappropriate. Again, I appreciate you, the team, and the experience of this game and community over the years. Thank you.

[Gandolf_TheOld]

What about character copy from an EU to an US server and vice versa? Maybe somehow reading your toon's attributes like deed and quests completed, traits, items in the inventory and vault, race, appearance, name and creating a toon with the exact same attributes in this new server. Would that be feasible?

A copy is just a another form of a transfer, a transfer is just another form of copying. I wonder just what Code Masters did to the EU character DB. How it is organized, what index keys are being used, what structure is used such that data transfer is prevented? Do I expect Turbine to answer that question, no. But I do wonder.