World Transfers

[Lilka]

I'm struggling to comprehend why the name things is even coming up. Whilst i can't remember exactly how things were said to work way back when i started playing, (back when codemasters still ran things and Mirkwood was new), i was under the impression from having regularly bagged several unique names on a then fairly busy withywindle that names were unique by account, not by server. When did this all get changed? I've been on a break since the second half of Rohan came along so i'm guessing i missed something...

That's never been the case. You have a name on that server, not on other servers. You bagged names on Withy because it was a brand new server. People might not have even thought to take simple names like "Clover" or "Mary" or "Gilbert" so plenty of those kinds of names were still free days after the server's launch.

[Hayden102]

We do appreciate all of our Oceanic Players, but we do not feel comfortable making an Official Oceanic world as we will not be officially supporting those play hours or languages specifically and with the reduced number of world we do not want to discourage players from other regions from playing on the server due to such a designation. However, I do encourage the Oceanic community to discuss amongst themselves a world to move enmasse to and publish that here on the forums as well as in World chat and other locations where your friends can see it and follow.

This will be a pain but I hope we can do this. Goodluck to all.

[CaerArianrhod]

How much real money have you spent on this game the last year? I know I have spent quite a bit more than the VIP yearly subscription fee.

Actually that is not your business, but i just checked for you my last 9 moths and my average monthly payment at Turbine is more than you spend for a year and i'm an LTA. So what?!?
Does this make me now to a more valuable customer than you or any other player???

again, there are just not enough of us to have Turbine keep the server layout as well as upgrading the hardware.

So no, Turbine is not really getting paid for this, not as much as they would need to anyway...

You really don't understand, don't you?
It is not about closing Servers. It is all about the sentence "5 US and 5 EU is correct. In our selection we will have one RP per region (EU & US) and one world per language (DE, FR and ENG)." No one has to be an Adam Riese to see that 1+1+1+1 is not 5. But it seems that Turbine has a lot of truble to catch up this simple math and make clear how the remainig 5 EU-Servers will be grouped. Look at this thread, many questions have been answered (even if only one player was involved) [which is good, no doubt!], but one of most discussed question in this thread is still without a clear answer.

Fitst: we are playing (here i can say this for my kinship and for my raid too) on an RP-Server because of the maturity. We are not "heavy" RP players, but we do not like see a charackter with name like "stiky pants" from the kinship "psycho babes". We don not want see a "Rapidkilla" runing around in middle-earth.
The second, and i said it already, a multilanguage megaserver just don't work for RP (it is not even working as a non RP variant really well). If turbine do not want support any other languages as english, they should say that. But that is not the case.

So why this companyis instigating players? ("Hi there, we will close 11 servers, but we will tell you later which one"). Why this company is still unable to communicate clear and understandable?

[Calta]

Quick questions-sorry if i missed the answers elsewhere:
Will rename tokens be tradeable in game ie either by using mithril as some store bought items are. Or preferably just open to trade?

Also, does renaming policy allow one to name oneself CherylRiddermark, to differentiate from the other Cheryls, for example?

At the moment on Landroval many transferees are running around with -1. Perhaps because it is a way for players to show they are incomers....and that's a point of pride for some, especially in PvP, as well as a way to avoid confusion with having a new name, especially if a kin transferred en masse. So, Do these old paid to transfer, transferees already have a name token? If not, should they? And if so, do they/should they get first dibs on freed up names?

[BangoTwinkletoes]

Quick questions-sorry if i missed the answers elsewhere:
Will rename tokens be tradeable in game ie either by using mithril as some store bought items are. Or preferably just open to trade?

Also, does renaming policy allow one to name oneself CherylRiddermark, to differentiate from the other Cheryls, for example?

At the moment on Landroval many transferees are running around with -1. Perhaps because it is a way for players to show they are incomers....and that's a point of pride for some, especially in PvP, as well as a way to avoid confusion with having a new name, especially if a kin transferred en masse. So, Do these old paid to transfer, transferees already have a name token? If not, should they? And if so, do they/should they get first dibs on freed up names?

I'd rather see CherylofRiddermark on Laurelin that say a Cheryl-1

[Calta]

I'd rather see CherylofRiddermark on Laurelin that say a Cheryl-1

me too! I hope that suggestion made when the transfers were first mooted will be adopted by those who want to retain their name. But now it's up to the players concerned/affected i guess.

[Trixie_Me]

This actually does bring up a point I have to wonder about. What if the vast majority of initial closing-server transfers occur to a single destination server? Will that destination server at some point be removed from the list of possible destinations for later transferees?

I brought this up in another thread some time ago. It is yet another reason why most companies do complete server merges rather than allowing people to transfer. And it is yet another potential reason why staged transfers are so unfair. Second, third or fourth (if there is one) waves of transfers may not have the same servers to pick from either.

[Gardhik]

I hope not... that way, you could lose some kinsmen/women or friends.... because they didn't transfer right away.

[Darth_Carl]

Question in case i missed an answer. When transfers open will we be able to see if a given name is taken on the target server before we transfer? Currently all my toons with common names have said name taken on the other EU english servers, but it's possible the time thingy will free them up, would be handy to know before transferring unless there's only going to be one english server...

[Beorthnoth]

Question in case i missed an answer. When transfers open will we be able to see if a given name is taken on the target server before we transfer? Currently all my toons with common names have said name taken on the other EU english servers, but it's possible the time thingy will free them up, would be handy to know before transferring unless there's only going to be one english server...

Names won't be freed up - it's just a question of who gets the -1 suffix. If the name is taken by an inactive player, you get lucky - on the other hand, if they're active you get the -1 or change your name.

[maartena]

I hope not... that way, you could lose some kinsmen/women or friends.... because they didn't transfer right away.

Send everyone you know in-game email. Vyvyanne has said it would stay around for 6 months, so that is basically until the server closes, so if they log on before the end of the year they will see the email and know where you have gone.

Of course if people go in different directions, and they get multiple emails.... then they may not know what to do.

[maartena]

I'd rather see CherylofRiddermark on Laurelin that say a Cheryl-1

1) The naming system is universal and the exact same code on 29 servers, they can't change it so it is different depending what server you are from, etc, etc. It would mean adding 29 variables to the code, and that is something that can no longer be done I think, that ship has sailed.

2) You can only have a Capital as the first letter of the name. This is to prevent people from making weird names like BaNgOtWiNkLeToEs etc, you know the kind of people that like to do that. So you name can't have the server name starting with a Capital in it, although in theory it could be Cherylofriddermark, but that just doesn't have the same ring.... You can of course use your rename token to name yourself that way if you wish, but you will already get a "Of Riddermark" title, which CAN have spaces and such in it.

Regarding the naming, they may be able to change some policies later on (such as implementing new code that would allow a rename token to take over an inactive name, that is currently also not possible), but the way the transfers are going to be handled is pretty much set in stone, and won't be changed again. That code has been tested and approved internally, and will go live on Monday, and then it all starts.

[Darth_Carl]

Names won't be freed up - it's just a question of who gets the -1 suffix. If the name is taken by an inactive player, you get lucky - on the other hand, if they're active you get the -1 or change your name.

Headesk.

That's my point if the name is inactive it will be freed up. But will there be any way to see that before you transfer...

[Trixie_Me]

Headesk.

That's my point if the name is inactive it will be freed up. But will there be any way to see that before you transfer...

If you create a character on that server, you can see the last month/day they logged in by adding them to your friends list. If you create 2 characters, you can sometimes see if it has been more than a year by ordering your friends list by the last log in date. Otherwise, the year is an unknown.

[Marancil]

Is it me wearing, or rather not wearing, glasses or have I seen names with apostrophes in them? Like Bara'al'gul or something. Is that even doable? Or dashes? Might have been in kinship names now that i think of it but what are the rules? http://support.turbine.com/link/port...O-subscription

[Ellyllon]

The name issue would be so much better if they just freed up the inactive account names. (Doing so by character seems unfair, if the account is active) If they do it now, people can make stand-in characters. Or they could wait until the transfers are open for all, then let people buy renames. (I suppose if I were a company, I'd take this route. Sigh.)


I understand people might come back, after being away for years. But those currently playing should take precedence. How many names were taken at launch & haven't been seen since? When I started - 7 years ago, I guess - I couldn't get a single first-choice name, on any server. And most MMOs reach this point, a time to clean up old, unused names. This is a weird way of doing it. You can - if you're lucky - keep the name you have now, but no other options are available. (Or I haven't heard they're considering cleaning up inactive acct names, anyway)

Because it sounds like transfers will be staggered, it's going to be hard if you're on the 'last to go' servers. (assuming you care about names/housing) I can make a guess as to which servers survive. Brandywine, to which we can't transfer, apparently. I'm assuming Landroval since it's the only RE server on the U.S. side. So it's hard to get a jump on this, with the uncertainty. (and I don't get the suspense-mode. Unless the decisions aren't finalized, which seems weird, it seems counter-productive in the 'good feelings' dept)

[Tuadha]

Hi,
Don't normally post, but this is sorta important to me so ...

I'd like to suggest that rather than -1, I could get -Eldar appended (since I'm on Eldar now). I am a beta>lifetime>occasional player but I am quite attached to the names I stayed up all night for on opening day to reserve, possibly even using an early access option to get those names (not sure if this happened here or other games, but it is quite common in mmos)

Hope this could be floated at Turbine discussions.

Regards,

[Ellyllon]

On other games, if you get a rename, you can't log in until you choose a new one. I'm assuming here, however, it works the same as if you buy a rename, & you get a drop down menu (basically) that you can use whenever? Will there be a limit to how long you can trot about as Bob-7? If they can code naming to say Bob-hyphen-7, then why would it be so much harder to do as, say, Guild Wars does, & allow surnames?

[Boskone08]

Hi,
Don't normally post, but this is sorta important to me so ...

I'd like to suggest that rather than -1, I could get -Eldar appended (since I'm on Eldar now). I am a beta>lifetime>occasional player but I am quite attached to the names I stayed up all night for on opening day to reserve, possibly even using an early access option to get those names (not sure if this happened here or other games, but it is quite common in mmos)

Hope this could be floated at Turbine discussions.

Regards,

An excellent (IMO) idea that has been put forward repeatedly in various threads, with no Turbine response. One variation that I liked was to use an alpha, like -a, instead of a -1 (or 2 or 3), where the -a was 'translated' by the game into 'of Arkenstone' for display, with -b becoming 'of Brandywine', -c 'of Crickhollow', etc. (EU names for the EU servers) so each transferee could still retain their 'main name' but with a origin-specific extension. Since there would only be one character for Phred of Arkenstone, he could be transferred freely to any other server without generating a name conflict, even beyond his first destination (since we can do multiple transfers).

[Darth_Carl]

On other games, if you get a rename, you can't log in until you choose a new one. I'm assuming here, however, it works the same as if you buy a rename, & you get a drop down menu (basically) that you can use whenever? Will there be a limit to how long you can trot about as Bob-7? If they can code naming to say Bob-hyphen-7, then why would it be so much harder to do as, say, Guild Wars does, & allow surnames?

Or better yet just re-write the code so that names carry the account info in the code end so names only have to be unique by account as several MMO's do it. A bit late for that now of course but really should have been considered when they started seriously contemplating closing servers and merging populations. I honestly though LOTRO did work that way given some of the super common names 3 of my characters bagged on withywindle after the game had been up for years.

[Linnier]

Or better yet just re-write the code so that names carry the account info in the code end so names only have to be unique by account as several MMO's do it. A bit late for that now of course but really should have been considered when they started seriously contemplating closing servers and merging populations. I honestly though LOTRO did work that way given some of the super common names 3 of my characters bagged on withywindle after the game had been up for years.

We could only be so lucky to have a merge. We are losing so many people over this debacle, even with the five servers it's still going to be a ghost town everywhere but BW. No one wants to sit and wait to move, especially when others before them will be going first, taking names, houses, etc..

Not only is this not fair, it has to be the dumbest implement in the history of MMOs. I know of at least 100 players that have already uninstalled the game and moved on to GW2/FF14. Going to be a lot more.

[Vyvyanne]

Vyvyanne, can we get confirmation on A) that this will be implemented, and B) if it is, when it's getting added?

Some of my kins longest-serving members are on breaks right now, and if my server closes I would like them to be able to access our kinmail after we've disbanded and transferred.

This will be implemented Monday along with the patch

[Decaran]

Vyvyanne,

I have a few questions that it would be nice to get some answers to, as I think it might alleviate some players' anxiety. I've read the whole thread, and I'm not sure my exact questions were answered anywhere, but apologies if they were!

1) Can you share any information on how you will choose the order in which servers will be able to transfer? To me, using a randomised order seems the most fair, but it would be nice to know if you plan on opening transfers to the smallest servers first, etc. Obviously no one wants to be stuck on the last server to transfer and lose their house location, name, etc, but I don't see a (fair) way around this unless servers can all transfer at the same time.

2) I presume that a main motivation behind transferring several at a time would be so server populations can be monitored by Turbine, allowing any worlds that approach the size of Brandywine to be closed for transfer temporarily. Basically, is this the current plan - to deactivate transfers to servers that become too large? I'm asking because I know several players who don't want to play on a large world, but if this is implemented, it seems server sizes will all end up roughly equal. So I'm wondering if it's better to just let all servers (barring Brandywine) remain open for transfer for the whole period and see if one server establishes itself for this crowd? It also seems to keep it fair for servers who would transfer near the end of the process, especially if they had planned to move to Server A, only to find transfers to Server A are not allowed because it has become too large.

[Boskone08]

Losses of at least 20% of the remaining active population of the closing servers should have been (and I suspect was) a base assumption for the decision. And the RP servers will survive because the losses there would have been over 50% in my estimation. Even the 'Surviving Five' in each region (NA & EU) will have significant losses (my guess is 10% as a minimum). I believe LOTRO will lose about 20% of their active user base from these closures, overall.

[Disparia]

Thank you Turbine, been waiting anxiously for this since it was first announced back in the beginning of the year. Not being able to transfer all of my toons to more populated servers there were some left behind that I haven't played in over 9 months. Now with the consolidation and free transfers my 'family' will be united again.