Will the Server Transfer Policy to New Servers be review after the Euro merges?

[Galahadur]

I guess the title says it all.

Currently incoming transfers are blocked to the new servers. With the impending joining of the EU servers into Turbine's Service, will that policy be reviewed?

Right now, speaking of Crickhollow, End-game is more stale than ever. Glff averages around 50 people and probably only one or two raiding groups are semi-active.

I don't know how the other new servers are bearing, but Crickhollow has a very slow end-game.

Mid-levels and Low-levels (the free levels, up to GA) always have alot of people, but after Lone-Lands you hardly see anyone.

Thank you for your answers.

[Kyrra_T]

Euro isn't merging. The euro servers will remain just in a new physicial location and run by Turbine. They aren't merging populations in any way.

Everytime Sapience has answered the question of transfers to the new servers he has said that they had no plans to allow transfers to the new servers added with ftp that the plan was to allow those servers to grow organically.

[Galahadur]

Euro isn't merging. The euro servers will remain just in a new physicial location and run by Turbine. They aren't merging populations in any way.

Everytime Sapience has answered the question of transfers to the new servers he has said that they had no plans to allow transfers to the new servers added with ftp that the plan was to allow those servers to grow organically.

Merging with the Turbine Service, i'm fully aware that they wont merge the servers together...

I know it has been said before that there were no plans to open up outside transfers, but that was before they announced the EU-US merger.

Now that it's in the open, and they already said that if everything goes well, they will open transfers from the US to the EU and vice-versa, and since the EU servers also have new servers launched with F2P, maybe there is a chance to loosen up that lockdown...

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Now that it's in the open, and they already said that if everything goes well, they will open transfers from the US to the EU and vice-versa, and since the EU servers also have new servers launched with F2P, maybe there is a chance to loosen up that lockdown...

I doubt we will see unrestricted transfer. It would not surprise if me some EU servers are made invalid targets. Apparently some of the newer NA servers are rather large. One of them appears to the second most active server right behind Brandywine.

[Laire]

I doubt we will see unrestricted transfer. It would not surprise if me some EU servers are made invalid targets. Apparently some of the newer NA servers are rather large. One of them appears to the second most active server right behind Brandywine.

That's because it is the first server listed when you log in as a new character, and it has been the first server listed for several weeks now.

They need to change that up more frequently, IMO.

While I guess I understand why they won't open up transfers to the new servers, why on earth don't they do it for the old top three? Only Brandywine is at the top now. Landroval hovers around 3/4. Elendilmir has not been at the top for ages. Sooo... yea.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

While I guess I understand why they won't open up transfers to the new servers, why on earth don't they do it for the old top three? Only Brandywine is at the top now. Landroval hovers around 3/4. Elendilmir has not been at the top for ages. Sooo... yea.

One of the reasons is work load. They did not have enough people to handle all the transfer requests. Instead of buying puters, building cubes and hiring people. They disabled transfer requests to reduce the load for a month.

Turbine does not perceive character transfer as a profit center. It was interesting to see a post one of the Turbine folks saying that we do character transfers as a courtesy to the customers when we have staff and time available. The implication was that he or she did not have any problems with turning the feature off. Instead the usual - smile - we are so nice - glad we are - now can I please have the money - you get from most companies.

[Dunskap]

I wouldn't mind. I getting sick of playing in the least populated server.

[FyreBrand]

I guess the title says it all.

Currently incoming transfers are blocked to the new servers. With the impending joining of the EU servers into Turbine's Service, will that policy be reviewed?

Right now, speaking of Crickhollow, End-game is more stale than ever. Glff averages around 50 people and probably only one or two raiding groups are semi-active.

I don't know how the other new servers are bearing, but Crickhollow has a very slow end-game.

Mid-levels and Low-levels (the free levels, up to GA) always have alot of people, but after Lone-Lands you hardly see anyone.

Thank you for your answers.

Right now Crick's glff is 115 at 6:15 (Pacific UTC -8) on a Wednesday. The weekends are better. I don't think Crick has a low population at all, especially not low enough to warrant the consideration of incoming server transfers.

I really like how the server is developing and maturing. Just my opinion though.

I can understand your disappointment if the raiding crowd is small or the interest low at the moment, but there are also other considerations to a happy healthy server. The level capped population will only continue to increase and more people will focus on that, eventually.

I wouldn't mind. I getting sick of playing in the least populated server.

Roll on a high pop server. There are no closed servers (just those closed to transfers).

One of the coolest things Turbine still offers is the option to roll on as many servers as you please.

[Laire]

One of the reasons is work load. They did not have enough people to handle all the transfer requests. Instead of buying puters, building cubes and hiring people. They disabled transfer requests to reduce the load for a month.

Turbine does not perceive character transfer as a profit center. It was interesting to see a post one of the Turbine folks saying that we do character transfers as a courtesy to the customers when we have staff and time available. The implication was that he or she did not have any problems with turning the feature off. Instead the usual - smile - we are so nice - glad we are - now can I please have the money - you get from most companies.

I find this a little strange, considering the amount they're making through F2P, I would have thought they'd have the resources to put this into play, too.

I guess the time that is put into it > the money made from it? I never thought about how much work it would be, to be honest. I guess I just don't understand why they'd offer it way early on when they had *less* resources than they have now. And if they just want to keep transfers closed to new servers/top three, shouldn't they reevaluate the top 3 again, then?

[Sapience]

One of the reasons is work load. They did not have enough people to handle all the transfer requests. Instead of buying puters, building cubes and hiring people. They disabled transfer requests to reduce the load for a month.

While an interesting opinion, it's not based in an fact or actual policies. The decision had/has nothing to do with man power, it has to do with server populations and performance.

We do not currently have plans to open transfers to any of the restricted servers (whether new or old) and will have a comment about transfer policies regarding the former EU servers shortly.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

While an interesting opinion, it's not based in an fact or actual policies. The decision had/has nothing to do with man power, it has to do with server populations and performance.

Lack of staff has been a problem in the past. Actually it has been an issue for Turbine customer service for many years off and on. In case you forgot, in 2010 Turbine was unable to handle all the transfer requests for many months. Turbine got to the situation of 30 day wait times. Had to turn off all premium services for 3 or 4 weeks because you did not have the staff available.

You yourself said that Brandywine, Elendilmir and Landroval were not the largest servers after the launch of F2P. You state here that no transfers is a server population and performance issue. One of your two statements is not correct. I am not buying into the performance issue for May, 2011. I doubt any of your servers are close to their capacity limit. We have not had a log in queue for any server this year.

The only time we get a log in queue message it is when the common shared services - log in - authentication goes wonky. Typically this situation affects all the customers on all servers. Using a different world server does not help.

I think the following process went on:

1) We want to disable Brandywine, Elendilmir and Landroval transfers in middle of 2010. We are getting an imbalance. Lots of high levels are leaving servers like Meneldor causing all kind of group finding issues for level 65 content. It is costing us money. People are canceling their subscriptions because they can not find groups. They are unwilling to move to a different server.

2) F2P hits. customers numbers go through the roof. Customer service was already struggling with the work. Collapsed. 30 day wait times. Turn off premium services. We have all kinds of over population on servers. Queues. Layers.

3) 2011 comes around. Turbine seems to finally get a handle on the staffing issues after months of problems in the first quarter. No more queues. No performance issues. Decent response times from customer service.

4) Second quarter 2011 - Turbine customer service has to gear up for German and French support. Migration of Code Master customers to NA. Support for all the EU servers. All the problems will occur.

You tell me customer service is adequately staffed to handle Landroval, Elendilmir and Landroval transfer requests. Plus prep for and handle all the EU customers when they arrive. Ha. I am not believing it.

I hope I am wrong. Turbine does not have a good track record for handling surges in customer service.

[Khafar]

I think the following process went on:

It's self-evident that Sapience knows a whole lot more about their processes, reasoning, and staffing than you do, or I do. However, I too find it rather strange that they can state on the one hand that some of the prior "high population" servers are now in the middle of the pack, then keep on saying that they're not going to change their transfer policies.

Could your speculation about trying to throttle requests to match manpower be correct? Sure. But I suspect it must be something else (not sure what), or else Sapience wouldn't be in this thread denying it. It would be nice if he'd say what it was .

Khafar

[Galahadur]

Honestly, i couldn't care less about the High End servers. I want to move out from them, not into them.

The problem is that they won't let me move out of Brandywine and into Crickhollow. I already have 6 characters in Brandywine, I'm not going to re-level the same classes again to 65. I either transfer or I'll stop playing altogether.

[Khafar]

The problem is that they won't let me move out of Brandywine and into Crickhollow.

Well, I don't expect that to change anytime soon - for at least a year from the F2P launch. However, I believe there are 7 other servers that you could transfer over to, if you wish.

Khafar

[danr607]

I not to long ago heard a pod cast that had lotro's producer saying he would consider transfer's to new servers . I for one would like them to open transfers,Ihave toons on silverlode and would like to move them to Imladris. I stoped playing on silverlode due to drama,trolls,etc.Imladris has great comunity. My wife and I both play,and soon my kid will too, so I left my old server to find better company ,but find with my real life activities lvling another (that i allready have on other server) is almost impossable. Kinda stinks as I cant play some of my other toon's I enjoy. This is probably one of the few thing's I dont mind spending some cash on

[Kyrra_T]

I not to long ago heard a pod cast that had lotro's producer saying he would consider transfer's to new servers . I for one would like them to open transfers,Ihave toons on silverlode and would like to move them to Imladris. I stoped playing on silverlode due to drama,trolls,etc.Imladris has great comunity. My wife and I both play,and soon my kid will too, so I left my old server to find better company ,but find with my real life activities lvling another (that i allready have on other server) is almost impossable. Kinda stinks as I cant play some of my other toon's I enjoy. This is probably one of the few thing's I dont mind spending some cash on

Um Lotro's producer is a woman...(Kate Paiz is the name). You either heard that podcast a long time ago, when Steelfel was the producer or it wasn't LOTRO's producer saying that.

[lavawalker]

We do not currently have plans to open transfers to any of the restricted servers (whether new or old) and will have a comment about transfer policies regarding the former EU servers shortly.

That's from a string yesterday. 05/11/2011 http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...he-Euro-merges

[Khafar]

Um Lotro's producer is a woman...(Kate Paiz is the name).

She's the exectutive producer for LOTRO. The live producer is Aaron Campbell. So it's quite possible to hear from either a man or a woman who are the current "producer" for LOTRO .

Khafar

[Galahadur]

Well, I don't expect that to change anytime soon - for at least a year from the F2P launch. However, I believe there are 7 other servers that you could transfer over to, if you wish.

Khafar

I started fresh with RL friends on Crickhollow. Not moving to another server. Out of the question.

[Jorani]

The current transfer policy is incredibly frustrating. I do not understand what is accomplished by blocking server transfers to servers like Landroval or Brandywine. If it's an economy issue, then allow people to transfer without their money -- I'd do that, it's not like I have much and I could get some from friends. But having to rebuild a character to continue playing with friends who rolled up on a different server after friends on the server I did play with quit is irritating. Some of us are not alt-o-holics and do not like repeating grinds, especially when we put so much effort into doing things the first time.

[Khafar]

I do not understand what is accomplished by blocking server transfers to servers like Landroval or Brandywine.

Brandywine is seriously overcrowded, resulting in server lag and other issues more often than anywhere else. It's completely understandable to me that they want to make server transfers one way: from Brandywine to somewhere else. Sure, people can still roll up a new character there, but as you said... it's a pretty large hurdle to go through. And on any server, most of the F2P players will be short-term.

The 4 new servers are off limits because A) they wanted those economies to be able to grow naturally, B) many players actively like new servers because they're not "mature" yet, and C) they didn't have a good feeling for just how crowded they'd be. Now that we're like 8 months past the F2P launch, I suspect they'll start re-evaluating those policies by this fall. Guess we'll see - Sapience hasn't even hinted at that yet, but I still think it's coming .

Khafar

[Jorani]

My friends are all on Landroval, and it doesn't seem very laggy to me, but that could be because I'm only level 10 there.

But if you can make a new character, how is that really any different [like I said, if it's an economy issue just offer to transfer sans money to solve any economy issues] in terms of "players on at any particular time?" To me, time is more valuable than money and I would think that it's a win-win, since that's $25 from an account that's not otherwise paying money beyond the dresses I bought earlier on [that I would now have to re-buy since character stuff isn't account-based].

[Khafar]

But if you can make a new character, how is that really any different in terms of "players on at any particular time?"

There are a number of differences:

• New characters from players with mains already on Brandywine are irrelevant since you can only play one at a time.
• New characters from F2P players aren't nearly as likely to stick around long-term - turnover there is high.
• Starting over from level 1 is enough of a deterrent that it prevents most people from moving. While $20 isn't cheap, months of gameplay to get back where you were is worse.
• People willing to pay $20 to transfer a character are much more likely to stick around, increasing the long-term loading on that server.
• New characters are "lightweight" in terms of the data they carry around with them, both in terms of what's cached in server memory and what's stored in the database. High level characters are as "heavy" as characters get.

Khafar

[Jorani]

I suppose I can appreciate that, but I wanted to voice my frustration with it.

The person who encouraged me to play after playing for years quit, which left me with a character (albeit not 65, I'm 31 on my main) in which I spent a lot of time [and some money, since Rune Keeper is not free to play] leveling (cooking, mining, jewel-crafting), and then several of my friends from other games rolled toons on Landroval, which I thought "wonderful, I'll transfer over to play with them," come to find out that I cannot.

So it's difficult for me, despite wanting to play with them (they're setting up a guild with one long-term playing individual we all know) and none of them are healers and I LOVE healing, to really want to put the same level of effort into the game to re-level my professions and class and deeds. Yes, I know I wasn't 65 so it's not the same level of effort as some other people who would want to transfer, but it was a lot of effort to me to not die for 20 levels, for example.

So my frustration has been voiced, thank you for listening.

[Galahadur]

The current transfer policy is incredibly frustrating. I do not understand what is accomplished by blocking server transfers to servers like Landroval or Brandywine. If it's an economy issue, then allow people to transfer without their money -- I'd do that, it's not like I have much and I could get some from friends. But having to rebuild a character to continue playing with friends who rolled up on a different server after friends on the server I did play with quit is irritating. Some of us are not alt-o-holics and do not like repeating grinds, especially when we put so much effort into doing things the first time.

Kinda like this.

If the problem about transfering to the new server is the Gold and Economy issue, i don't mind transfering with zero gold.

I just to want to relevel from scratch...