World Transfers

[Gardiaah]

No, this is different. This is a force consolidation of my account. I'm a lifetime founder. I've already paid to have access to all my toons all the time. Not to buy more character slots or have my toons in storage and/or lose gear because of it.

This is just wrong.. how many years did you put into that many toons? =( Hugs n comforts!

[Thoroval]

Hmm, mine will often show 1. Bound, 2. Bound to a character, 3. Bound to Account, 4. Bound to Other Account, or 5. Not Bound (that is, no Bound shown).

Like you, I have not kept detailed records. I made a bunch of storage alts to hold stuff for the transfers, just in case. That might not be necessary, though, when everything has been finalized.

I see all the various tooltips you mentioned, but only when I'm looking at items located in storage locations. Mousing over slotted (slotted is the key) housing items only shows Bound or nothing (along with "Purchased from store" when appropriate) in the tooltip for me.

So I just double-checked and if I mouse over any slotted bound housing item, even an item bound to me, it only says "Bound" and gives no indication who it's bound to. If I try to unslot the bound item the system responds "That decoration is not bound to you." No character name. If the system responded "That decoration is bound to char_name" then that would be a workaround.

My only option is Return to Owner without knowing who that is. I'd like to know who owns it so I can contact that person to coordinate the return of the bound item and possible reinstallation. This is especially important for players on hiatus from the game.

Btw, I'm not aware of any housing items that are Bound-to-Account (BtA), even store items. I've always assumed that's due to the Return to Owner function which would break with BtA housing items.

[cdq1958]

I see all the various tooltips you mentioned, but only when I'm looking at items located in storage locations. Mousing over slotted (slotted is the key) housing items only shows Bound or nothing (along with "Purchased from store" when appropriate) in the tooltip for me.

So I just double-checked and if I mouse over any slotted bound housing item, even an item bound to me, it only says "Bound" and gives no indication who it's bound to. If I try to unslot the bound item the system responds "That decoration is not bound to you." No character name. If the system responded "That decoration is bound to char_name" then that would be a workaround.

My only option is Return to Owner without knowing who that is. I'd like to know who owns it so I can contact that person to coordinate the return of the bound item and possible reinstallation. This is especially important for players on hiatus from the game.

Btw, I'm not aware of any housing items that are Bound-to-Account (BtA), even store items. I've always assumed that's due to the Return to Owner function which would break with BtA housing items.

Ah. Where I have housing items placed, I'll often pull them from the hooks and then mouse-over them then.

[Capt.Hunor]

also, am i the only one who thinks it'll be this (below) in EU?
1 EU EN
1 EU EN RP
1 EU PvP
1 EU DE
1 EU FR

could be me, but having 2 RP's and no PvP's will probably make people being annoyed, and makes less sense
since english is the language most know on this world (reallife world), RP fits EU EN server best, same with PvP

lets count "EU EN" as "EU international"

.... be happy german and french people, that you have an OWN server, the rest doesnt have that

Answer to your question:

1. Yeah, you are alone

I repeat, what do you think about to keep only a English dedicated RP server? Do you think UK is something special?
In fact you are thinking to play on 3 servers 1 RP-EN, 1 non-RP-EN and 1 mixed EU.
Yes, you are very special, that's is the reason that some days UK wake up and they will see that they are alone on the island :-)

[Fratonia]

No, this is different. This is a force consolidation of my account. I'm a lifetime founder. I've already paid to have access to all my toons all the time. Not to buy more character slots or have my toons in storage and/or lose gear because of it.

Then just leave those characters where they are for the moment until you got new slots. As a lifetime account owner you should have no problems purchasing them.

Re: the EU servers: I think there is much more need for English speaking servers than there is for German and French.

If there are to be 5 servers, it would make sense to do it like this:

1 EN RP
2 EN Regular
1 FR Regular
1 DE Regular

Sorry, that doesn't make any sense to me. You have for example 1000 English speaking players, 1000 German speaking players and 300 French speaking players. So you distribute 3 servers to 1000, 1 server to the other 1000 and 1 server to the 300? That math is beyond me. For your information at the moment we have 6 English, 6 German and 2 French servers which show almost equal load levels according to the numbers we can't be sure about. If we go by those numbers the servers need to be shared 2 EN + 2 DE + 1 FR.

Ah. Where I have housing items placed, I'll often pull them from the hooks and then mouse-over them then.

You can't do that for items you don't own.

[RJFerret]

2. Does the Kinship disband when the Kinleader moves? Yes, it does. This means all messaging to players should be through in-game mail and forums before leaving the world. We can set mail to last longer on the closing worlds (6 months) so that those who log in after the kinleader moves, but before the worlds become unavailable can receive mail on destination target.

Yes please, this would be greatly appreciated to aid folks returning (especially the all too common, come back to play around the Holidays folks).

[miriadel]

EN does not mean english enforced but preferred. On EN servers (all en servers, us and eu) there are people from multiple cultures and languages, german and french too, and you will likely see that multiple languages pop up in world chat. English is not enforced, and EN servers does not mean that only people from UK or NA play on them.

[cdq1958]

Then just leave those characters where they are for the moment until you got new slots. As a lifetime account owner you should have no problems purchasing them.



Sorry, that doesn't make any sense to me. You have for example 1000 English speaking players, 1000 German speaking players and 300 French speaking players. So you distribute 3 servers to 1000, 1 server to the other 1000 and 1 server to the 300? That math is beyond me. For your information at the moment we have 6 English, 6 German and 2 French servers which show almost equal load levels according to the numbers we can't be sure about. If we go by those numbers the servers need to be shared 2 EN + 2 DE + 1 FR.



You can't do that for items you don't own.

You're right. Scenarios that I face may not be those faced by others. Barring a bugged item, all housing items in my houses all belong to me, one way or another.

[Fratonia]

EN does not mean english enforced but preferred. On EN servers (all en servers, us and eu) there are people from multiple cultures and languages, german and french too, and you will likely see that multiple languages pop up in world chat. English is not enforced, and EN servers does not mean that only people from UK or NA play on them.

This is clear. But if you want others to understand you it's better to stick to the server language. Of course I can speak swahili on an EU server but I shouldn't expect to get an answer. The same applies to other languages.
If you want to force over 40 percent of the EU population on a single server just to have 3 servers for the other 40 percent you should be doing your math again.

[maartena]

Sorry, that doesn't make any sense to me. You have for example 1000 English speaking players, 1000 German speaking players and 300 French speaking players. So you distribute 3 servers to 1000, 1 server to the other 1000 and 1 server to the 300? That math is beyond me. For your information at the moment we have 6 English, 6 German and 2 French servers which show almost equal load levels according to the numbers we can't be sure about. If we go by those numbers the servers need to be shared 2 EN + 2 DE + 1 FR.

I don't know the exact numbers. But I do know that the English speaking servers are more likely to be used by Netherlands, Danmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and possibly countries like Australia and New Zealand, and even Americans and Canadians that didn't know there was a US/EU server difference.

But it would make sense the number of players will determine the amount of servers that are available.

This site can help with that: http://lux-hdro.de/hdro-live-europe.php

The french are definitely way under represented, but one of the English servers alone has twice the logins as the next busiest server. So yeah I don't know what needs to happen and how/why/where/what.

[maartena]

This is clear. But if you want others to understand you it's better to stick to the server language. Of course I can speak swahili on an EU server but I shouldn't expect to get an answer. The same applies to other languages.
If you want to force over 40 percent of the EU population on a single server just to have 3 servers for the other 40 percent you should be doing your math again.

The main language in World chat should definitely be uniform, so English on most servers and then German and French on the specifically dedicated servers for those languages. People can organize themselves in kinships however, I know that on some of the US servers there are some Spanish speaking kins for South American/Latin American players, and I also know that there is (was) a Dutch language kin on one of the EU servers.

[Beorthnoth]

I'm agree with that. The german RP player on Belegaer will stop to play the game. I'm very sure about this, they was always very sensible of language matters
ingame but also outside in the forums.

I don't understand why Turbine is not able to make a simple equation:

1. EN-RP
1. FR-RP&non-RP
1. DE-RP
1. EN-non RP
1. DE-non-RP
Everybody happy.

Even if RP Servers will need to accept the fact that not all non-RP players can join a single non-RP server and they will need to accept a big amount of non-RP players,
they will be not a mixture of nations like Babel. That's definitively a NO-GO, even for non-RP servers.
To mix a RP server with three nations is the catastrophic idea.

Not wanting to rain on everyone's parade, but if Turbine want to achieve a roughly even spread of server load (ie about 20%/server), this may not work. The login data from the German site does suggest a 40/40/20 split EN/DE/FR, but ... it also suggests that RP server logins across all locations are about 20% of total. If this is true, then the above solution, in the absence of large non-rp players to the rp servers, will lead to 10% of logins on the 2 rp servers and 30% on the non-rp, leaving the non-rp servers more overloaded than even Brandywine. On this analysis, it's hard to see a justification for more than one RP server for EU.

[Erennor]

Although this is not very relevant perhaps, I wish to take the chance here and openly give my thanks to the new Executive Producer and the new Community Manager for their continuous communication with the LotRO community. For those who have been around for long, you may still recall that this was not so in older days, at least certainly not to this degree and so often.

So I thank you both Frelorn and Vyvyanne for this.


Also, on another note and more related to this thread, EN RP does not mean RP Enforced. It stands for RP Supported as can be read in the official thread by Turbine: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?396577-Turbine-Official-Roleplaying-Rules-and-Policy

[Etnograf]

About Title Picker Box. Will you make Russian names of servers (Mirkwood, Fornost, Aglarond) be able to be chosen as a title?

[LethalLethality]

Names shouldn't be taken from pre-existing players of a server. The only way I could really see it being a good thing is if the original player name on the server has not been logged into for a year AND is below a certain level... say 30 or has a /played time of less than a certain amount, like 72 hours.

In this way, it looks for two things: Recent activity and if that character was just a place-holder character to stake claim. It won't take the names of people who've spent a lot of time on the character (as seen by the level and/or /played time) if that person hasn't been active for the past year.

[Padhril]

The main language in World chat should definitely be uniform, so English on most servers and then German and French on the specifically dedicated servers for those languages.

Turbine have stated quite recently (can't dig it out because it was on Twitter) that any language may be spoken on any server, and harassing people over language use is forbidden. Of course it's sensible to speak the main server language if you want to be understood, but there is nothing banning you from speaking Swahili or whatever you prefer in any chat.

[Fratonia]

Not wanting to rain on everyone's parade, but if Turbine want to achieve a roughly even spread of server load (ie about 20%/server), this may not work. The login data from the German site does suggest a 40/40/20 split EN/DE/FR, but ... it also suggests that RP server logins across all locations are about 20% of total. If this is true, then the above solution, in the absence of large non-rp players to the rp servers, will lead to 10% of logins on the 2 rp servers and 30% on the non-rp, leaving the non-rp servers more overloaded than even Brandywine. On this analysis, it's hard to see a justification for more than one RP server for EU.

There are RP players that are currently on a non-RP server. Those will most likely move to the remaining RP server. I will do that (unless Belegaer is closed which will be the end of Lotro for me) and I know others that will do so as well.

[Srale]

Although this is not very relevant perhaps, I wish to take the chance here and openly give my thanks to the new Executive Producer and the new Community Manager for their continuous communication with the LotRO community. For those who have been around for long, you may still recall that this was not so in older days, at least certainly not to this degree and so often.

So I thank you both Frelorn and Vyvyanne for this.

I second that :-)

All this speak of EU servers with diference of EN, DE and FR servers makes me wonder - do we live in Europe of 21 century or we are back to 19-20 century europe?
I consider my server (Laurelin) not an EN - or even an EU server (many people here are not EU people or europeans) - we are global server open to all people and languages <3
By history events most people understand English and we use it mostly on Laurelin. But if people want to use other languages they are more than welcome. Turbine even have a rule that if somebody grief you about your use of your lang you can report them!
So people of new EU servers - be open to others in LOTRO like we do try to be open to others in RL :-)

[snakeeyes00]

Hi Vyvyanne,

Im guessing my question got lost in the pages that have followed, so I will ask again. Firstly, however, thanks for taking the time to answer and clarify our questions. It is much appreciated.

My question is this. Will there be an official "Oceanic" server from the selection of 5 US servers that will be remaining? If not, can you please designate one.

Currently Elendilmir is the unofficial Oceanic server, which is fantastic for all us Australians, New Zealanders and night owls whose normal play time is outside of prime time US time, like 3am EST. Having scout some of the bigger server, while they are extremely active during prime time US time, they are dead quiet during our normal play time. Whereas Elendilmir has activity all around the clock. For example, last night, a quick server check showed over 100 people (At max limited) playing at 3am EST, which is abnormal for other servers.

It would be good to have a designated Oceanic server so if we have to move, all the Oceanic people will know which server is best suited to our time zone needs

Thanks

[Fratonia]

Names shouldn't be taken from pre-existing players of a server. The only way I could really see it being a good thing is if the original player name on the server has not been logged into for a year AND is below a certain level... say 30 or has a /played time of less than a certain amount, like 72 hours.

Vyvyanne has made it clear that they don't want to punish any active players that have characters on a destination server. If someone starts with Lotro these days he may not even reach your relatively low requirements to keep his name.
We will just have to live with Turbine's decision. I can live with it and I'm already thinking up new names for my characters that I will have to rename on my preferred destination server.

[ShireDweller]

About Title Picker Box. Will you make Russian names of servers (Mirkwood, Fornost, Aglarond) be able to be chosen as a title?

This is a great idea, I'd love to see this happen for our Russian friends. Please, Turbine?

[Fratonia]

All this speak of EU servers with diference of EN, DE and FR servers makes me wonder - do we live in Europe of 21 century or we are back to 19-20 century europe?
I consider my server (Laurelin) not an EN - or even an EU server (many people here are not EU people or europeans) - we are global server open to all people and languages <3
By history events most people understand English and we use it mostly on Laurelin. But if people want to use other languages they are more than welcome. Turbine even have a rule that if somebody grief you about your use of your lang you can report them!
So people of new EU servers - be open to others in LOTRO like we do try to be open to others in RL :-)

This is not the point. If someone addresses me in English I will happily answer in English. However there are lots of people (more than you think) that do not speak English very well or at all. I want players to feel comfortable playing this game and one requirement for this is that they understand what is happening around them. It's easy for someone that uses English every day to expect the same ability from everyone else but this is just wishful thinking.

[phaelan2]

Then just leave those characters where they are for the moment until you got new slots. As a lifetime account owner you should have no problems purchasing them.

Why would it be easier for a lifetime account owner to purchase more slots?

The point is, we've already paid for the characters we have, as well as additional costs for costumes, costume slots, horses, houses, and so forth. Why should we have to pay for them again?

Adding two additional slots and putting character slots on sale will help, but it is still feels like double-dipping for existing players. I've been here since the first alpha testing and invested a lot in many of my characters across ten of the fifteen US servers. Facing the possibility of losing part of what we have built up over the years is a valid concern.

[maartena]

Hi Vyvyanne,

Im guessing my question got lost in the pages that have followed, so I will ask again. Firstly, however, thanks for taking the time to answer and clarify our questions. It is much appreciated.

My question is this. Will there be an official "Oceanic" server from the selection of 5 US servers that will be remaining? If not, can you please designate one.

Currently Elendilmir is the unofficial Oceanic server, which is fantastic for all us Australians, New Zealanders and night owls whose normal play time is outside of prime time US time, like 3am EST. Having scout some of the bigger server, while they are extremely active during prime time US time, they are dead quiet during our normal play time. Whereas Elendilmir has activity all around the clock. For example, last night, a quick server check showed over 100 people (At max limited) playing at 3am EST, which is abnormal for other servers.

It would be good to have a designated Oceanic server so if we have to move, all the Oceanic people will know which server is best suited to our time zone needs

Thanks

I would suggest you do your own "crows sourcing" on this, and try to organize the current server. Log on, discuss with others, perhaps open up a forum topic in the current Elendilmir forum to discuss....

My recommendation would be to pick a server that is NOT Brandywhine (will be closed for transferring to) or Landroval (RP Server), so one of the other three, which are most likely will be Gladden and two others.

I myself will be moving to Gladden, but I am on PST (Pacific time) USA.

[Beorthnoth]

There are RP players that are currently on a non-RP server. Those will most likely move to the remaining RP server. I will do that (unless Belegaer is closed which will be the end of Lotro for me) and I know others that will do so as well.

Agreed, but I'm not sure that they are in sufficient numbers to enable 2 rp servers to be supported - I could be wrong of course. If Laurelin closes and Belegaer remains open, I'll move to Belegaer. It seems to me that what matters to you more than anything is that your server has the DE label. I'm sorry, but that smacks to me of linguistic imperialism. I'd far prefer to have 5 EU servers with no language designation whatsoever.