New Transfer Features

[Vyvyanne]

Thank you everyone for your continued patience on waiting for details regarding our server transfer improvements, hardware and consolidation efforts. This post will be one of a series in which I will present some more details on our plans. I won’t be able to answer all of your questions as we are still planning and building the systems, but I will answer what I can. We have many teams working on this transformation that could take the remainder of the year to complete, so I am providing information as it becomes solid enough to share.

So how will we improve the transfer process so that I don’t lose my stuff, you ask? By adding the following features:

New Launcher service: We are changing our character and account transfer service to occur in the game launcher itself. No longer will you need to find a website to conduct a transfer. You just have to launch the game and go from there!

Account transfer: This new checkbox in the Server Transfer interface will allow the transfer of all account level items from one server to another. These items include the following:
o Account Shared Currency (Mithril Coins & Skirmish )
o Shared Storage
o Housing Storage
o Wardrobe
o Destiny

Kinship transfer: We are working on a system to transfer some of your kinship information data to the new server. More details as this feature develops.

Naming Priorities: One of the main concerns is of players keeping their names. We are looking into a change in the way name conflicts are handled to give priority to the active characters. More details as this feature develops.

Region transfers: Existing characters on EU and US worlds will have a data conflict moving to a different region, so we are only able to support transfers of characters from an EU world to another EU world and US to US. You will note that we have now labeled all worlds on the launcher with their region. However, there is no restrictions on where you might start a new character and play based on your physical location, so feel free to try out new worlds in which ever region you feel most comfortable.

We aim to have this new service available in early spring this year with beta testing on Bullroarer before that time. We hope that you will join us to give feedback and stress tests to this all new and improved aspect of our service!

[Brandon_Blackbird]

Thank you for recognizing the concern with names!

[afferas]

this is great news. I'm really plased with what has been said about these server transfers so far. just one thing I'm wondering will I be able to choose which servers my characters are moved to?

[LorenNell]

thanks for info , just a question , when you drop list of servers being closed?

[Palentian]

Naming Priorities: One of the main concerns is of players keeping their names. We are looking into a change in the way name conflicts are handled to give priority to the active characters. More details as this feature develops.

It has been suggested before, but can you add a last name into the array? That might eliminate many conflicts. If the system checked first name for conflict, then last name (in the event of a conflict) for instance.

[Silmelin]

Thanks for the info

And thanks for understanding how important the Wardrobe is for many!

Naming Priorities: One of the main concerns is of players keeping their names. We are looking into a change in the way name conflicts are handled to give priority to the active characters. More details as this feature develops.

What if two people are actively playing their characters? In that case I feel that the person who is staying on his/her server should keep his/her name and the person transferring to that server should have to change, even if the person transferring has been playing for longer than the person who has that server as his/her home.

If you have chosen a server and also chosen a name that was free to take on your server, and then someone else comes and takes your name away, that would be very unfair.

[Scirocco]

Region transfers: Existing characters on EU and US worlds will have a data conflict moving to a different region, so we are only able to support transfers of characters from an EU world to another EU world and US to US. You will note that we have now labeled all worlds on the launcher with their region. However, there is no restrictions on where you might start a new character and play based on your physical location, so feel free to try out new worlds in which ever region you feel most comfortable.

We aim to have this new service available in early spring this year with beta testing on Bullroarer before that time. We hope that you will join us to give feedback and stress tests to this all new and improved aspect of our service!

Thank you for the update! With regard to region transfers, it has been suggested that, if feasible, you keep a server with the old CodeMaster code (i.e., a EU world) in a US location, and move or open a server with the Turbine code (i.e., a US world) in Amsterdam. This would resolve concerns about disparities between physical location and world code type (e.g., all NA and OC players currently on a server with CodeMaster code can transfer to the server with that code that remains in the US location).

[Xhiu]

By account shared currency thats all the stuff in green letters in the wallet, I assume. I can't check BR now but do the taxidermy or festival tokens on each toon also transfer. I'm thinking they do but I dunno at this moment.

I am also pleased to see this post. Thank you.

[infinitewhimsy]

Thank you for the regular information. This cannot happen soon enough.

[wbhz]

o Housing Storage

Hi Vyvyanne
Thanks for the information you have provided, but I am concerned with other aspects of housing.

You mention the movement of housing Storage. What about other parts of the housing system:

• The actual house being moved
• The amount of storage we already own in the house (if it is based on gold purchased or mithril coin expansion)
• The decorations
• The rent we already paid. Personally I pay far in advance for my rent also to max number of weeks.

Thanks in advance for the information you provide

[Tuco]

Thank you for the update, Vyvyanne. It looks very promising. Good information, and it raised a couple of questions for me.

Account transfer: This new checkbox in the Server Transfer interface will allow the transfer of all account level items from one server to another. These items include the following:
o Account Shared Currency (Mithril Coins & Skirmish )
o Shared Storage
o Housing Storage
o Wardrobe
o Destiny

Two questions on this:

1. If we're moving some characters to different servers (e.g. one to an RP kinship on Laurelin and another to a music kinship on Landroval), can we take some of the currency and marks and shards and wardrobe (for example) to each, or will it be everything from one server to another server?

2. What happens if the receiving bin is full -- do we need to have enough empty shared storage and wardrobe and housing storage to accept everything from the old server, or will there be some kind of overflow system to allow later pruning on the new server?

Thanks -

[edit - oops, I showed one going to EU and one going to US. That's not a relevant part of my question, since I realize that's not going to be an option. I meant "one each to different available servers." ]

[welden]

thanks for info , just a question , when you drop list of servers being closed?

Even though I have no actual knowledge of which servers will be ultimately closed I will however, state that it is more likely that this list you speak of will not be finalized until after the new transfer features have been put into place.

Turbine may want to wait until the dust clears so to speak after this feature has had a chance to be used for a period of time. Perhaps the server populations will change from where they are now - meaning a low pop server could possibly gain transfers when this feature becomes available?

I know you are prolly hoping for a blue name for an answer but I think your answer is still a ways off...

Welden

[istvana]

Thanks for the effort to keep us informed.

In terms of names it is traditional in MMOs to have conflict rules when there are mergers (related to character level, date of creation and activity of the character normally) to determine who keeps the name. It is traditional to have no such rules in case of voluntary transfers - if your name is taken you lose it.

Activity rules are welcome - even if a transfer is purely voluntary a character that hasn't been played for e.g. 5 years shouldn't be able to block use of the name.

I urge you to consider more robust merger-type rules in the case of a transfer from a server that you decide to eliminate. These are not "voluntary" transfers they are compelled - the difference between merging a server into another one and just eliminating it is merely a technicality (other than the advantage that those abandoning the sinking ship have more choices of destinations). Therefore I think it makes sense in this situation to give priority based on traditional merger conflict rules rather than forcing the person losing his or her server to also lose the name unless the character that already has it is totally inactive.

Thus if I have a level 100 created 8 years ago and my server is eliminated (forced transfer not voluntary transfer) I should have priority over a level 15 created 2 months ago even if the level 15 is active. Precisely as I would have if you called the move a "merger". And, of course, vice versa.

>What if two people are actively playing their characters? In that case I feel that the person who is staying on his/her server should keep his/her name and the person transferring to that server should have to change, even if the person transferring has been playing for longer than the person who has that server as his/her home.

If you have chosen a server and also chosen a name that was free to take on your server, and then someone else comes and takes your name away, that would be very unfair. <

I entirely agree in the case of a voluntary transfer. You decide to move you take your chances. I don't agree in the case of a forced transfer - there are many technical differences but to the player involved having your server eliminated is much the same as it being merged out of existence and giving automatic priority to someone on a high population server over someone on a low population server merely because of population and regardless of age, level and activity of the characters is *definitely* unfair.

[Reximus]

Thanks for the info

And thanks for understanding how important the Wardrobe is for many!


What if two people are actively playing their characters? In that case I feel that the person who is staying on his/her server should keep his/her name and the person transferring to that server should have to change, even if the person transferring has been playing for longer than the person who has that server as his/her home.

If you have chosen a server and also chosen a name that was free to take on your server, and then someone else comes and takes your name away, that would be very unfair.

But they played the game longer and its not their fault their server is being closed, it's a lot more unfair to them.

Ideally they come up with a system that lets everyone keep names by having an account identifier of some sort.

[CM-Amenophis]

Do all green Items in your wallet count as Account Items?

-Merits
-Shards
-Commendations
-Universal Ingredient Packs

And what happens to our Character Bank? I think a F.A.Q that will filled, with Information as we get them, would be helpfull

[Ingiogal]

Thank you everyone for your continued patience on waiting for details regarding our server transfer improvements, hardware and consolidation efforts.

Account transfer: This new checkbox in the Server Transfer interface will allow the transfer of all account level items from one server to another. These items include the following:
o Account Shared Currency (Mithril Coins & Skirmish )
o Shared Storage
o Housing Storage
o Wardrobe
o Destiny

Thanks for the update, Vyvyanne!

Question: What if we don't intend to transfer all of our toons to the same server? I, for instance, have more toons on Nimrodel, than I can absorb on any of the other servers where I play so I'd been intending to split them across multiple servers.

That leads me to wonder, how will account shared items be duplicated/divided in that case?

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Thank you for all the information - its very much appreciated. However, there was something in this most recent post that didn't sit right with me - how does this first quote...

Account transfer: This new checkbox in the Server Transfer interface will allow the transfer of all account level items from one server to another. These items include the following:
o Account Shared Currency (Mithril Coins & Skirmish )
o Shared Storage
o Housing Storage
o Wardrobe
o Destiny

...mean the same thing as this one?

As for character items, we are working on making sure everything your character or account has will move with you. There may be some edge-case items that will come out in testing, but we will have a clear listing of what those items are.

The list of things that you have said will transfer with us does cover most concerns, but it fails to address my biggest issue: that of the items in your wallet.

Now, most long time players, based on conversations with people in my kin and on the server, if they have been playing the game for a substantial amount of time, will have bought the premium wallet. In the premium wallet there are two kinds of things: account bound items, and character bound items.

Reading what you said in the second quote, you say that everything that our CHARACTER as well as our ACCOUNT will move with us. However, while account shared currency is mentioned on your list (and hopefully this extends to things like Stars of Merit, as well as Marks etc.), CHARACTER currency is not.

These character currency items include a lot of things - festival tokens, taxidermy items, regional tokens (the ones that you get from Dol Amroth quests are the most essential of these, but all of them have value, particularly if you're grinding in lower level regions for particular rewards (like the Enedwaith Gold and Silver Tokens of the Wilds).

What makes this situation worse is that those people that DIDN'T spend on the premium wallet will be able to keep their items, as they'll be in their inventory (or their vault) when they transfer. However, those of us that were fool enough to buy the premium wallet (and lets face it, up until now its been an essential purchase) will lose all the items that we have stored there.

I have never transferred a character, and don't know if it has always been the case that the CHARACTER bound items transfer with you, but as its not been stated that they do, I'm assuming that so far, they do not. Therefore, I'm asking you to please reassure us all that the aim is to ensure that CHARACTER bound items that are in the premium wallet, as well as ACCOUNT bound ones, will not be lost in the transfer.

Thanks for the excellent communication, and I hope to see it continue.

[xstaff]

Existing characters on EU and US worlds will have a data conflict moving to a different region

This is exactly on what we hope you will work… Sadly it seems it's not planned.

[Juravael]

Thank you for the information Vyvyanne. Sounds good so far.

[Bludborn]

Thanks for the info

And thanks for understanding how important the Wardrobe is for many!


What if two people are actively playing their characters? In that case I feel that the person who is staying on his/her server should keep his/her name and the person transferring to that server should have to change, even if the person transferring has been playing for longer than the person who has that server as his/her home.

If you have chosen a server and also chosen a name that was free to take on your server, and then someone else comes and takes your name away, that would be very unfair.

So how would you handle this situation? I have a character on server a and server a closes. I move to server b. Server b has a character with the same name that is equally as active. My YouTube, twitch, Twitter and Facebook are all created with my character name. What do you do? I don't want to sound snarky. I truly want to know.

[Eirika]

[QUOTE=Vyvyanne;7310210]Thank you everyone for your continued patience on waiting for details regarding our server transfer improvements, hardware and consolidation efforts. This post will be one of a series in which I will present some more details on our plans. I won’t be able to answer all of your questions as we are still planning and building the systems, but I will answer what I can. We have many teams working on this transformation that could take the remainder of the year to complete, so I am providing information as it becomes solid enough to share.

Thank you for this posting - I look forward to hearing more as it evolves!

Lothhil, BW

[Eirika]

This is exactly on what we hope you will work… Sadly it seems it's not planned.

Actually you should say 'what some folks hoped' as many people would prefer to see the manpower and money resources go to solving other issues. Just to clarify that this is not a universal 'want'

Lothhil, BW

[Olgomil]

I have never transferred a character, and don't know if it has always been the case that the CHARACTER bound items transfer with you, but as its not been stated that they do, I'm assuming that so far, they do not. Therefore, I'm asking you to please reassure us all that the aim is to ensure that CHARACTER bound items that are in the premium wallet, as well as ACCOUNT bound ones, will not be lost in the transfer.

Ive never transferred a character, but i had used the copy tool to bullroarer (the beta server). When you copy your character to bullroarer the character bound items in your premium wallet go with you. For example the copied character have the same festival tokens than the one in the live server.

Sergio :-)

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Ive never transferred a character, but i had used the copy tool to bullroarer (the beta server). When you copy your character to bullroarer the character bound items in your premium wallet go with you. For example the copied character have the same festival tokens than the one in the live server.

Sergio :-)

Yeah, I noticed that with copies too - I just hope that its the same for transfers, and this is something that definitely needs to be clarified

[peachykins]

In regards to names, I think would help is any account that has characters level 1 should be deleted so those names are free for use. I have come across tons of names who are at level 1.

One question I have is are you gonna let people transfer to Brandywine & if so will you set a limit? Also if you do plan on doing this, will you be offering free transfers off this server to another less populated?