World Transfer Status Updates

[Vyvyanne]

First I want to thank everyone who participated in the initial transfers that occurred last week. Due to some unrelated connection issues we had to turn of the service after only a short couple days and before we could really kick off US transfers, but in that time we received a lot of data that will help us improve the service even more. If you attempted a transfer last week and encountered any issues, please open a ticket with Customer Support and they should be able to help you out.

We are releaseing a patch this morning with the improvements and at that time we will open up the service for 48 hours for the 5 Remaining US worlds: Arkenstone, Crickhollow, Landroval, Gladden and Brandywine (off world only) to shuffle among themselves. The service will then be turned off again Friday morning as we assess the data and wait for some of the new hardware effort to catch up to our transfer progress.

Currently we expect the new hardware and data center to be available for public testing on Bullroarer in early September and are planning an event around that. More info as we get closer.

In mid-September to Early October we expect to start open transfers off of the closing worlds to the remaining worlds. We will begin with the smaller population worlds so as not to tax the old hardware as we transition to the new but still allowing those on the quiet worlds to start getting to know their new communities. In the October to November time frame is when we expect to be able to do the full switch over to the new hardware and data center for everyone and turn on transfers across all worlds. Please note this is our current timeline and is subject to change based on other delays that may occur during build out.

For those concerned about the free transfer timeline between remaining worlds that we originally set to end on October 1st, we are adjusting this plan. We will no longer have a time frame for free transfers, but are instead working out a way for everyone to have a chance to change their mind on their destination server once before having to pay to do so again.

So once again I want to thank everyone for their patience. This is a monumental task to undertake and we are making every effort to ensure it goes as smoothly as possible, but in order to do that sometimes it means taking pauses or delays in schedule. And this is only the largest of the upgrades we are working on for this year! You should be getting eyes on our new in-game storefront in the coming months as well as a new website coming in the months following that! So many shiny new updates for Lord of The Rings Online coming up both in-game and out, so stay tuned.

Cheers,
Athena “Vyvyanne” Peters
Executive Producer

[Vyvyanne]

Übertragungsstatus
Zunächst möchte ich mich bei allen bedanken, die an den ersten Übertragungen teilgenommen haben, die letzte Woche stattfanden. Aufgrund einiger anderweitig gelagerter Verbindungsprobleme mussten wir den Service nach kurzer Zeit wiederabschalten, bevor wir den Großteil der US-Übertragungen starten konnten. Währenddessen gingen jede Menge Daten ein, die uns dabei helfen, den Service noch weiter zu verbessern.

Der Service bleibt derzeit weiterhin deaktiviert, so lange bis wir mit einem Patch ein paar Fehler behoben haben. Solltet Ihr in der letzten Woche eine Übertragung versucht haben und seid dabei auf Probleme gestoßen, öffnet bitte ein Ticket für den Kundendienst, dort wird Euch geholfen.

Wir haben geplant, den Patch mit den Verbesserungen diese Woche, spätestens Anfang nächster Woche, zu veröffentlichen und werden dann zeitgleich den Service für einen Zeitraum von 48 Stunden für die 5 verbleibenden US-Welten öffnen: Arkenstone, Crickhollow, Landroval, Gladden und Brandywine (nur von der Welt) zur Durchmischung untereinander. Der Service wird anschließend wieder abgeschaltet, damit wir die Daten analysieren und darauf warten können, bis Teile der neuen Hardware mit dem Übertragungsfortschritt synchronisiert sind.

Aktuell erwarten wir, dass die neue Hardware und das Datencenter für öffentliche Tests auf Bullroarer Anfang September verfügbar sein werden, wir haben dafür auch schon ein Event in Planung. Mehr dazu zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt.

Etwa Mitte September bis Anfang Oktober planen wir, die Übertragungen von geschlossenen Welten auf die verbleibenden Welten zu öffnen. Wir werden mit den weniger bevölkerten Welten beginnen, um die alte Hardware nicht zu überlasten, da wir zwar auf die neue übertragen, aber den Spielern auf den alten Servern weiterhin ermöglichen, ihre neuen Communities kennenzulernen. Zwischen Oktober und November etwa werden wir vermutlich vollständig auf die neue Hardware und das neue Datencenter umschalten können und Übertragungen für alle über sämtliche Welten aktivieren. Bedenkt bitte, dass dies unser aktueller Zeitplan ist und er sich durchaus verändern kann, wenn es während der Umsetzung zu weiteren Verzögerungen kommen sollte.

Denjenigen, die sich Gedanken machen über den ursprünglich angekündigten Zeitraum für kostenlose Übertragungen bis Ende Oktober, sei versichert, dass wir dies entsprechend anpassen werden. Wir werden kein Ablaufdatum für kostenlose Übertragungen mehr haben, stattdessen erarbeiten wir gerade eine Möglichkeit, mit der jeder die Chance bekommen soll, sich bezüglich des Ziel-Servers noch einmal umzuentscheiden, bevor eine weitere Übertragung kostenpflichtig wird.

Ich möchte mich nochmal bei allen für Eure Geduld bedanken. Dies ist ein gigantisches Vorhaben und wir bemühen uns nach Kräften, es so reibungslos wie nur irgend möglich umzusetzen, aber das bedeutet manchmal auch, Verzögerungen im Zeitplan hinnehmen zu müssen. Dies ist zwar die größte, aber nicht die einzige Erweiterung, an der wir dieses Jahr arbeiten! Ihr solltet die Augen offen halten nach der Neugestaltung unseres Spiele-Shops, die innerhalb der nächsten Monate kommen wird, und darauf folgend der neuen Website! Es erwarten Euch also ein paar nette Updates für Herr der Ringe Online - sowohl im Spiel als auch außerhalb!

Beste Grüße
Athena „Vyvyanne“ Peters
Executive Producer

[Vyvyanne]

Progrès des transferts
Je voudrais commencer par remercier tous les joueurs qui ont participé aux premiers transferts la semaine dernière. Même si des problèmes de connectivité sans rapport avec le service nous ont obligé à le désactiver après seulement quelques jours et avant de pouvoir vraiment commencer les transferts US, nous avons pu collecter dans l'intervalle beaucoup de données qui nous permettront d'améliorer encore le service.

Le service est actuellement fermé pendant que nous préparons un patch qui corrigera quelques erreurs. Si vous avez rencontré un problème lors d'un transfert la semaine dernière, ouvrez un ticket et le service clients devrait être en mesure de vous assister.

Nous nous sommes fixé pour objectif de déployer un patch d'améliorations cette semaine ou en début de semaine prochaine. À cette occasion, le service sera ouvert pendant 48 heures pour des transferts entre les 5 mondes US restants : Arkenstone, Crickhollow, Landroval, Gladden et Brandywine (en provenance du monde uniquement pour ce dernier). Le service sera ensuite désactivé pour nous permettre d'évaluer les données collectées et de déployer une partie du nouveau matériel qui viendra soutenir la poursuite des transferts.

Nous prévoyons actuellement l'ouverture de la phase de test publique du nouveau matériel et du nouveau centre de données pour début septembre, ouverture qui sera encadrée par un événement. Nous aurons bientôt plus d'informations à communiquer à ce sujet.

Entre la mi-septembre et le début octobre, nous prévoyons de démarrer la phase de transferts depuis les mondes qui ferment vers les mondes qui restent ouverts. Afin de ne pas surcharger l'ancien matériel durant la transition vers le nouveau, mais pour permettre quand même aux joueurs des plus petits serveurs de faire connaissance avec leurs nouvelles communautés, nous ouvrirons en premier les transferts depuis les mondes comptant des populations plus faibles. Entre octobre et novembre, nous prévoyons d'être en mesure de procéder à la mise en service globale du nouveau matériel et du nouveau centre de données, pour tous les joueurs, et d'ouvrir les transferts pour tous les mondes. Notez bien toutefois qu'il est possible que le plan change en fonction des délais potentiels que nous pourrions rencontrer durant la phase de mise en place.

Si vous aviez des inquiétudes au sujet de la fin, prévue initialement pour le 1er octobre, des transferts gratuits entre les mondes qui restent ouverts, sachez que nous allons modifier le plan originel. Les transferts gratuits ne prendront plus fin à une date donnée. En lieu et place, nous sommes en train de développer un système qui donnera à chacun une chance de changer une fois d'avis quant à son serveur de destination, sans devoir payer.

Je tiens à tous vous remercier, une fois de plus, pour votre patience. La tâche entreprise est monumentale et nous faisons tout notre possible pour l'exécuter sans trop d'accrocs, ce qui implique parfois de devoir marquer des pauses ou de ######er différentes étapes. Et ce n'est que la plus large d'une série d'améliorations prévues pour cette année ! Vous devriez ainsi découvrir dans les mois qui viennent la nouvelle vitrine du magasin SdAO dans le jeu, ainsi qu'un nouveau site web dans les mois suivants ! Continuez donc à vous tenir au courant et attendez-vous à de nombreuses mises à jour rutilantes pour le Seigneur des Anneaux Online, aussi bien dans le jeu que hors du jeu.

À bientôt !
Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters
Productrice déléguée

[Vyvyanne]

We are now nearly halfway through turning on all the transfers for closing worlds onto the remaining worlds. Elendilmir, Estel, Riddermark, Gilrain, Firefoot, Eldar, Nimrodel, and Anduin are all now available for off world transfers. Morthond will be available on Monday October 19th (around 11am EST) and Windfola on Tuesday October 20th about the same time. Additionally Brandywine and Evernight (our two largest worlds) are now available for transfers OFF ONLY to the other remaining worlds.

The rest of the closing worlds will have their transfers turned on in the coming weeks to be announced as we evaluate stability and determine we are ready for the next set. This is occurring every 1 to 2 weeks. For the order in which we are turning worlds on see the following list https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articl...e-announcement

How about the new server hardware and datacenter that all these consolidations are for? The new hardware is coming along great. We have all the equipment in place and built out and are now onto the arduous task of moving all of the software and data from the old hardware to new, making sure connections are correct, running QA tests etc. We should be a load test on the new Bullroarer Beta world in the next week or two and will make announcements about it as soon as we have a date locked down. The aim is to have everything completed and live before the US Thanksgiving holiday. In the meantime we are monitoring the Evernight population closely, have added some additional hardware resources to it to increase capacity and if we start seeing issues we might have to slow down transfers, but we hope it will not come to that as I know everyone on the closing worlds is looking forward to their opportunity to transfer.

[Vyvyanne]

Originally we announced that we would provide a one month time frame in which players could re-shuffle among remaining worlds should they decide they did not care for the world the originally chose. After some testing and initial trials we have discovered this method of open transfers would not work. Instead we have decided to go with granting every account 3 Character transfer tokens, which will be granted in line with moving to the new hardware, and Free Transfer Events, which will be periods of time in which characters on a remaining world have opportunity to move to one of the other remaining worlds for free.

We will hold an event lasting 1 month for each of the 10 remaining worlds that will cycle 2 at a time (1 EU & 1 US) and will allow players on the worlds that week to go to any of the other remaining worlds in their region for free (does not require use of a token). For example on Arkenstone’s month a player can choose to move one or all of their characters on Arkenstone one way to Brandywine, Crickhollow, Landroval, or Gladden for free. We will post a schedule closer to the conclusion of the consolidation of the closing worlds and the turning on of the new datacenter. The schedule will be posted on website, forums, weekly emails and the current Worlds of the month in the Launcher news feed. The 3 character transfer tokens you will be granted will allow you to make a move for your primary characters outside of one of these windows for free if you choose not to wait. Paid character transfer moves cost 1 token per character. Shared Account item moves are always free.

[Vyvyanne]

As part of the server merges, we are aware that there are many people who are entering Laurelin and Belegaer without a full understanding of the rules for a roleplay server. These servers have enforced roleplay names. This means that any name that falls outside of those rules is subject to change. This can come as a shock to those who have played for years with a name they are attached to but which falls outside of these rules.

Until December 31st, we will attempt to practice a relaxed version of the naming rules as though the servers were just like the ones who do not enforce roleplay names. I would encourage those who plan to call these roleplay enforced servers their home to contact In-Game Support to request a rename token as part of a proactive approach to avoid a naming violation. After the final free server transfers, the naming policy will revert to the original roleplay enforced version and your name will be subject to those rules.

[Vyvyanne]

Morthond is now available for transfer.

Tomorrow we will open transfers off of Windfola.

After those two are open, we will be pausing in opening any more closing servers for transfer until we are on the new hardware which will be able to handle the increased populations. We are already seeing great increases in load on the remaining servers and do not wish to put further strain on them and the players on them. This should only be a matter of a few weeks at this point though, so we appreciate your patience.

[Vyvyanne]

Brandywine is now available as a transfer destination for the closing worlds that have been opened for transfer.

Maiar will open for transfers on Monday November 16th.

Imladris will open for transfers on Tuesday November 17th.

[Vyvyanne]

Maiar is now available for transfers!

[Vyvyanne]

Imlardris is now open for transfers to the remaining 5 US worlds.

[Vyvyanne]

We will be opening Vanyar for transfers to remaining worlds on 11/23/2015.

Dwarrowdelf will open for transfers on 11/24/2015.

[Vyvyanne]

Withywindle is now open for transfers (11/30/2015)

Silverlode will be available for transfers tomorrow 12/1/2015

[Vyvyanne]

On Monday December 7th we will open transfers off of Vilya.

At this time we will also be closing free transfers off of Brandywine and Evernight and switching to Arkenstone and Gwaihir.

Tuesday Dec 8th we will be opening transfers off of Meneldor completing the US closing worlds.

We are holding off on opening Snowbourn for a week or two as we add hardware capacity to our larger EU worlds to handle the load. It is possible this world may not be opened for transfers until we are in the new data center.

Work is coming to a close on this project and we hope to have a launch date for you soon once we have worked though the final testing of the environment.

Thank you for your continued patience!
Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters

[Vyvyanne]

Title says it all, the last of our closing worlds to begin migration will be Snowbourn on Dec 14th!

[Vyvyanne]

While we are still working through some kinks in upgrading from 32-bit to 64bit Operating Systems for our new hardware, we have come to the last of the list of opening closing worlds for transfer. On Dec 14th Snowbourn will be opened for transfer.
All closing worlds will then be available for transfer.

We will also be offering Free transfers between remaining worlds following the below schedule.
• Dec 7th- Jan 3rd: Arkenstone & Gwaihir
• Jan 4th- 10th: Landroval & Belegaer
• Jan 11th- 17th: Crickhollow & Sirannon
• Jan 18th- Jan 24th: Gladden & Laurelin
• Jan 25th- Feb 29th: Brandywine & Evernight
• March 1st- 31st: Arkenstone & Gwaihir
• April 1st - May 1st: Landroval & Belegaer
• May 2nd- May 31st: Crickhollow & Sirannon
• June 1st- 30th: Gladden & Laurelin

Please note that transfers off of closing worlds will remain free permanently regardless of schedule.
All Closing worlds will no longer be available for play on April 4th 2016. Characters will remain available for transfer to an open world.

Once again we are grateful for your patience throughout this process that took longer than any of us expected, but we are very excited about this upgrade and the boosted activity on the top ten worlds and we hope you are as well!

Thank you,
Athena “Vyvyanne” Peters
Executive Producer- Lord of the Rings Online

[Vyvyanne]

This morning we added 3 Character transfer tokens to every account and enabled the ability to use these to go between any of the ten remaining worlds. Transfers are 1 token per character so you can use these to move your main characters while you wait for a free window for your world or hold on to them for a later time in case you decide to try out a different world.

This also means that the Account/ shared storage transfer is now available between all worlds and is free (no token needed).

Currently the 3 tokens we have granted or any that you may have purchased prior are the only ones available. We will offer a way to purchase more in the new year.

We hope this helps those of you who may have made a mistake in your transfer choice or simply want a change of pace without waiting for free transfer windows.

Happy Holidays from all of us to you!
LOTRO Team