New Transfer Features

[BigLotroFan]

They should resolve naming conflicts by simply tacking on the name of the original server to existing character names.

Elroond of Brandywine
Elroond of Gladden

Both existing on the Brandywine server.

[dragonbreath13]

Before, you answered that free transfers would be available before the new transfer features are set in place. Is this still the plan? How soon will the free unimproved transfers be available?

[Jurny]

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.

This bit right here is causing me GREAT concern!! For 1 thing it's rather vague to say the least! I think this should be handled with extreme caution! If you start deciding who you think should keep thier names over other players, this could get real messy, for all those involved!

What exactly does "priority to the active characters" represent? Not to mention, who decides this? This could mean so many things and yet the least amount of information is forth coming. Hmm

It kinda feels as though this is being done on purpose to see who barks the loudest?

If you start changing names (in any form) of existing players on any given server, to make room for transferies, this could and probably will get really ugly! Really fast! Not to mention the havoc it will cause. Those people shouldn't have to worry about thier names, or have anything be added to it. Period!


It should work the way it has always been, first person on the server with thier character name, should keep the name, no if's and's or but's about it. Can't stress this enough!
In fact, I feel as though the least amount of priority should be given to those people that are willing to transfer (Not forced yet) as far as character names are concerned. They have choices as to where to transfer to. Shouldn't it be thier responsiblity to be searching now for servers that don't have thier character names existing on them already. Like many are doing at the present time? And yes, I might be 1 of those people (transfering).

If all of sudden you go willy nilly and start changing names to satisfy a chosen few, it wouldn't be fair to those people that have been on the server first, after-all, they didn't create this situation, Turbine/WB did.

[J-TK]

Biggest Question-
Transfer to an already overloaded servers like Brandywine, where daily Lag, even by yourself in an open field, is a hassle,
how do you plan, without even more dynamic layers separating people, to handle it? Especially in the PVMP areas?
Thank You!

[chrisli]

They should resolve naming conflicts by simply tacking on the name of the original server to existing character names.

Elroond of Brandywine
Elroond of Gladden

Both existing on the Brandywine server.

I can see how some people might not like that, but if that could be an option (at least) for keeping your name, I'd like that pretty well. If my server (Windfola) closes, I'd like people to know that it's still my server.

[Jurny]

They should resolve naming conflicts by simply tacking on the name of the original server to existing character names.

Elroond of Brandywine
Elroond of Gladden

Both existing on the Brandywine server.

Sorry, but NO! I absolutely hate this idea! Having been on this game going on 8 years, none of my characters have a Sir name, "MY CHOICE" and I certainly wouldn't want to see my server name next it, EVER! Or for that matter NOTHING added to it. And nothing taken away either.

[Hammadryad]

[QUOTE=Alakin93;7310363]

... and there are players who t

Leave the game because of the merge? When I logged in and had 31 people in global at 18:00 of a saturday last week?
You realize we can't even pug a skirmish or raid from global because you can't get to 12 right?
Gilrain is dead mate, and if they dont do the merge/closing of the server as quick as possible it'll finish that everyone will leave.
Only hope is that it'll close as soon as possible to save what is left. Gilrain was and is my home server.
Many people will be back, many that I know and spoke personally, and not go, believe me

Gilrain isn't dead, but it might as well be as a lot of people I play with are saying they are definitely quitting over this. Lots of players who rarely use Global, I know that I for one never ever use global and several others have told me the same. The sense of depression is palpable and players are asking if any or their friends are staying with the game and offering them Gold, mats, cosmetics, etc. in preparation to their quitting. It doesn't sound good, a lot of players I know and play with are quitting once the server closes and I probably will as well if all them quit as they say are going to.

[grizzly375]

I'm confused by all of this, but, would primarily like to know soonest if my primary server is going to be shut down, and, if so, what server(s) will be available to transfer to. I'd also like to hear more about the kinship transfer option - if my world is doomed, it'd be nice to xfer to a new server with "family..."

[Dmira]

They should resolve naming conflicts by simply tacking on the name of the original server to existing character names.

Elroond of Brandywine
Elroond of Gladden

Both existing on the Brandywine server.

Not a bad option. If the choice came down to losing the name or having the server added to it, I vote for adding the server.

[Frelorn]

As soon as we have more concrete information about things like naming and what we are doing we will share it with everyone. As Vyvyanne posted, we are looking into this and will have more information to share when we know more. In other words, what is possible is still being researched. We have been very open with everyone about this so far, and we will continue to do so when we have the information to share.

[Scirocco]

Not a bad option. If the choice came down to losing the name or having the server added to it, I vote for adding the server.

Agreed. I would find this acceptable if forced to move (and I would only move if my server is closed). it also strikes me as being the most fair to everyone affected (which is everyone).

[frickinmuck]

They should resolve naming conflicts by simply tacking on the name of the original server to existing character names.

Elroond of Brandywine
Elroond of Gladden

Both existing on the Brandywine server.

I think this is a good suggestion. Perhaps not necessarily displayed as a title or surname (unless the user chooses to), but rather shown in the bio for that user or on the tooltip or in some other way not yet conceived of. It would be really frustrating for someone to have their name changed to "of Brandywine" just because someone from another server with the same name came over. There should be a way for them to choose not to display that above their character, but still enable other players to determine which of the 'x name' characters they are dealing with - the one from Brandy or the one from the other server.

It should work the way it has always been, first person on the server with thier character name, should keep the name, no if's and's or but's about it. Can't stress this enough!

I agree 100%. Any other approach would seem unfair. Ideally though, I think it would be preferable to somehow let both people keep their names, and not with -1, -2, etc.

[Shyadaren]

Unless the server name can be hidden, I do not want to run around with my name as Jazzmine of Windfola. And even if it can be hidden, does someone have to type that whole thing to send me a tell? or send me an in game mail? or to send me an invite to a group? I don't see that idea as the most fair at all. If a character has been inactive for over a year, why penalize me if I have to transfer. Just for the record, I will not be transferring unless I absolutely have to, I am very happy on Windfola and have no reason to transfer unless my server is closed.

[Brinswith]

I think this is a good suggestion. Perhaps not necessarily displayed as a title or surname (unless the user chooses to), but rather shown in the bio for that user or on the tooltip or in some other way not yet conceived of. It would be really frustrating for someone to have their name changed to "of Brandywine" just because someone from another server with the same name came over. There should be a way for them to choose not to display that above their character, but still enable other players to determine which of the 'x name' characters they are dealing with - the one from Brandy or the one from the other server.



I agree 100%. Any other approach would seem unfair. Ideally though, I think it would be preferable to somehow let both people keep their names, and not with -1, -2, etc.

Is it not also unfair to the person moving to the server, especially if this is somewhat forced due to their server being on the list to be closed? They lose their name though no fault of their own?

[Olgomil]

Just for the record, I will not be transferring unless I absolutely have to, I am very happy on Windfola and have no reason to transfer unless my server is closed.

Same for me at Riddermark.

Sergio :-)

[chrisli]

I don't think that inactive players need to keep their names just because they were lucky enough to be on the server that is not closing. I'm not talking about players that haven't logged in for a month - I'm talking about players that haven't logged in for a year or more, in some cases maybe 5 years or more. Just like with the housing foreclosure - I like my house, I'm rather attached to my house, but if I leave the game, I don't think it's fair to other players for that house to be permanently reserved for me.

However, I don't think that names on a server should depend on which of two active players have been playing the longest. I've been playing my main for over 4 years. If someone from another server transfers here and gets to have my name because they've been around for 5 years, I'll be pretty mad. But if I am forced to transfer and I lose my name to a level 1 character created 6 years ago that hasn't been played since then, I'll be upset, and the other player will probably never know or care that their character's name has not been changed. I think it would be plenty reasonable for that character to get renamed. But, as I mentioned, I'd be happy with adding "of X Server" to my own character's name, and hopefully that would work for both players. (I suppose, as Shyadaren pointed out, that would be a bother for sending tells, mail, etc. I'd still prefer that over -1; perhaps players can have a choice about which they'd prefer.)

If adding the server name is not possible, then I think that an active player already on the server should keep their character's name, but I think giving both players a free rename would be helpful. Perhaps the active player on the server isn't that attached to their name and would be willing to change their character's name. Or if someone transferred to my server and wanted the name of one of my crafting alts, then I'd be happy to change their names. Now, if the person had voluntarily transferred off a server that wasn't closing, that would be a little different. I don't think those players need special name privileges.

[Tuco]

They should resolve naming conflicts by simply tacking on the name of the original server to existing character names.

Elroond of Brandywine
Elroond of Gladden

Both existing on the Brandywine server.

I like it in principle.

There are potentially challenging conceptual and programming issues, though - we already have "of" titles, like "Elroond of Gondor" and "Elroond of the Quick Post", both assigned at spawn time and earned. If there were a name conflict that had to be disambiguated to avoid collisions, would it need to become "Elroond of Gladden of Gondor"? Would "Elroond of Gladden" have to avoid using "of the Quick Post"? I have no idea how difficult the programming changes would need to be for this proposal, but it would almost certainly be more challenging than choosing a candidate algorithm for the least unfair way to decide who gets to be the Real Elroond on Brandywine.

In any case, if this interesting idea is feasible, I'd *still* like free name change tokens as an option to accepting the source and/or destination server name tacked on. In many of my 65 cases I may well prefer to have a new name than be viewed as a carpetbagger. Also, if I'm "Elroond" on both Brandywine and Gladden, then when I bring my Gladden avatar to Brandywine I might want to rename the Brandywine one first in order to retain the hypothetically famous Gladden name of self-imagined great renown... another free rename token!

[Tuco]

As soon as we have more concrete information about things like naming and what we are doing we will share it with everyone. As Vyvyanne posted, we are looking into this and will have more information to share when we know more. In other words, what is possible is still being researched. We have been very open with everyone about this so far, and we will continue to do so when we have the information to share.

Thanks, Frelorn - all informational tidbits are appreciated and will be spun out into enormous structures for your delight and amusement.

Meanwhile we'll continue to feed you our carefully researched and incredibly implementable suggestions to ease your efforts during the transition planning phase.

[pittcrew1]

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. .

They indeed are already transferred, as with anything truly character-specific like vaults.

[Silmelin]

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.

You could try server c, d, f, g etc.

[Scirocco]

You could try server c, d, f, g etc.

You're presuming that there will be servers c, d, f and g. I wouldn't make that assumption.

[Brandon_Blackbird]

Priority to active characters probably means that if someone made a character in head start named Bob but then never logged in, and someone else transferred their level 100 character named Bob to that server, the person who actually plays gets the name. As for two equally active characters with the same name, no idea how they're going to handle it but I'm sure they'll do their best to handle it fairly.

[Brandon_Blackbird]

You're presuming that there will be servers c, d, f and g. I wouldn't make that assumption.

Well they're certainly not going to close 20 servers and only have one open.

[Rainith]

As soon as we have more concrete information about things like naming and what we are doing we will share it with everyone.

I'm sorry, this just made me chuckle, if only because it sounds like nobody know what the heck is going on...

[chrisli]

You could try server c, d, f, g etc.

The issue with that is that some people, myself included, will go wherever their kinship goes. I've been in my kinship for 3.5 years, and I intend to move with it if my server closes. (Also, my main's name was created by putting together a prefix and suffix from the character naming page. I doubt that it is available on many servers; it's taken on the servers I've checked already.)