World Transfers

[Celthon]

It takes quite a long time to be able to get a kin to the rank to be able to buy a kin house on the new server.

So when the Kinship Leader transfers to new server, the Kinship is being forced to restart as brand new, with lost rank?

[Marancil]

This is already explained in the dev notes:

You can only own one house per account.

It says on the destination server. In this case I own it on the departing server.

This can be a special case; say you buy a Standard House on Target Surviving Server [TSS] for short-term use, but have a Deluxe on Current Departing Server [CDS]. If you move the house-owning character from CDS to TSS, the Standard House on TSS is retained and the Deluxe house value is available to the transferred character, but he has no house purchase option, as the account already has a Standard House.

A work-around is to abandon the Standard House on TSS before you move the house-owning character from CDS to TSS, but this leaves the issue of storage for the contents during that time, and loses the storage space bought with the Standard House. A more complicated work-around is to move the Standard house-owning character from TSS to another Surviving Server (this should be free until some time in October, we believe), taking the Standard House contents and storage slots with him/her, and buy a new Standard House on that (temporary) Surviving Server. Then move the Deluxe house-owning character from CDS to TSS and buy a new Deluxe House there (on TSS). Then move the house-owning character from the (temporary) Surviving Server back to TSS, and the maintenance and storage from the Standard House are added to the Deluxe House. More awkward, to be sure, but you end up with a Deluxe House on your Target Server.

While Turbine could make a system that would take care of that for us without the 'housing shuffle' (and the extra transfers), I suspect the need is too rare (I'll be doing it a few times) to justify the development and testing costs for the 'special' system - a few extra automatic transfers is probably much more economical for them.

You did have to use acronyms and two different kind of houses and intertwining them acronyms with the house level...right...? Sigh....

I have one DeLuxe house on Departing Server, I have upgraded the storage (last upgrade cost me a WHOPPING 100 Mithril Coins). If you advise against buying a house (any kind of house) on the Target Server, I can live with that, but I want to make sure I end up with the same house and storage on the Target Server.

[ShireDweller]

So when the Kinship Leader transfers to new server, the Kinship is being forced to restart as brand new, with lost rank?

No, my understanding is that the kin rank is preserved.

My question is specifically about the kin house and purchased kin house storage I have now. Is it true that the only way to keep the storage we purchased is to already have a kin house on the new server? If that's the case, it'll take a long time for the kin I just started on the new server to reach that kin rank.

Can anybody give or link to a definitive answer to this?

[cdq1958]

So when the Kinship Leader transfers to new server, the Kinship is being forced to restart as brand new, with lost rank?

That can't be tested right now, on BR, unlike standard and deluxe housing, which can be tested by copying a house owner then buying a house on BR. I'm fairly certain that my unlocked house storage slots copied, which that was not true in the past, if I am remembering correctly.

The plan for kins (I have a crafter kin that is mine) is for the kin leader to be able to transfer rank, kin house ownership and unlocked kin house storage slots, intact. Given that account data like that couldn't copy or transfer in the past, and that account data currently allowed to copy does copy plus some of the account data that wasn't; I expect that plan to work.

I would think that there will be more testing of this, given what Tybur has said. This testing is open beta, so grab a copy of the BR client, if you don't have it; and test it.

[ShireDweller]

No, my understanding is that the kin rank is preserved.

My question is specifically about the kin house and purchased kin house storage I have now. Is it true that the only way to keep the storage we purchased is to already have a kin house on the new server? If that's the case, it'll take a long time for the kin I just started on the new server to reach that kin rank.

Can anybody give or link to a definitive answer to this?

I found my answer about kinhouses in the announcement FAQ:

Any remaining pre-paid credit and unlocked storage levels on the Kinship house will be automatically granted upon purchase of a new Kinship house on the new world.

[GoldrushSE]

@Vyvyanne --


I have a couple of questions, please.

First, I know you said the system has no way of knowing if a character has left the intro or not. But, is it possible to "see" those created ONLY on the creation screen but never logged in? I ask because I was trying to create character to transfer over to pick up the same name of a character who I know, for a fact, has not been played for over four years. However, on all but one other server, when attempting to add the name to my friend list to see if it was taken, I got the message "This character cannot be added." To confirm it did, indeed, actually exist, I created another character but left it only on the creation screen. When I tried to add the name to my friend list, I got the same message. I then logged that character into the game, just into the first few minutes, then logged back out. When I tried to add the name to my friend list after that, it appeared as a level one character. So, it seems obvious to me that many many names may be unuseable due to having been created ONLY on the creation screen but never logged in. If these names could, somehow, be purged, it may open up a lot of names for a lot of transferees.

Second, concerning "Sir". Sometime back, about 2 months ago, I attempted to create an Elf with a Sindarin name that begins with "Sir..". The message I received was "This name is already in use." Okay, I thought it must be some NPC. So, I tried several others beginning with "Sir...", since I like what that syllable means, and got the same message. I then tried just random letters and other bits after "Sir..." and got the same message. It was then that I realized it must be because the system considers "Sir" to be a title and therefore not acceptable as a name. My question is this: Is there no way to change something somewhere that allows those three letters at the start of a name? Or is the possibility of someone naming their character "Sirdudley" or somesuch enough to leave it as a non-useable part of an otherwise lore-appropriate name?

Thank you for your time and consideration on this an other questions.

-Goldrush
*******

[DKenny]

Regarding the naming issue (Sir....), perhaps a GM could help with a manual name change if this is a programming issue?

[Fratonia]

It says on the destination server. In this case I own it on the departing server.

Would you please make up your mind? You said that you created a char on the destination server and want to buy him a house on the destination server. You already own a house on your current server. You asked if you transfer to the destination server if you end up with two houses and I gave you the correct answer to that question.

So, it seems obvious to me that many many names may be unuseable due to having been created ONLY on the creation screen but never logged in. If these names could, somehow, be purged, it may open up a lot of names for a lot of transferees.

The transfer code doesn't distinguish between "never logged in and created over a year ago" and "last login over a year ago". In both cases transferring characters override the name of that "zombie".

[lavender1934]

Sorry if this has been covered. There is a lot of traffic over the announcement of character transfers. I was wondering if anyone knows what will happen if you have characters on two servers that are closing. The big question I have is can I move all my toons to the same server? Another question is how many? I have six on each. Thanks.

[Fratonia]

Sorry if this has been covered. There is a lot of traffic over the announcement of character transfers. I was wondering if anyone knows what will happen if you have characters on two servers that are closing. The big question I have is can I move all my toons to the same server? Another question is how many? I have six on each. Thanks.

That depends on how many character slots you have unlocked on your account. If you have 12 or more slots you can move all 6+6 to the same server and be able to play them all. If you have less slots you should still be able to transfer them to the same server but you will not be able to play all of them until you buy more slots.

[lavender1934]

That depends on how many character slots you have unlocked on your account. If you have 12 or more slots you can move all 6+6 to the same server and be able to play them all. If you have less slots you should still be able to transfer them to the same server but you will not be able to play all of them until you buy more slots.

Thanks for the response. Looks liked I'd be able to get all my toons together, but the order I transfer may be important. Probably best to transfer the ones I want to play the most first regardless of which server they are currently on.

[maartena]

Thanks for the response. Looks liked I'd be able to get all my toons together, but the order I transfer may be important. Probably best to transfer the ones I want to play the most first regardless of which server they are currently on.

Turbine recommends to move kin leaders FIRST (by themselves) if you have any kinships. This gives the server a chance to create the kinship that moves along with it. If you move all characters at the same time, it could be some are processed before a kinleader, and they will become kinless. Not that it matters THAT much, but just a recommendation if you have a kinship.

I'm going to do it like this:

1) transfer kinless mule first.
2) transfer 2 kin leaders of one-person kins.

If that all goes WELL, I will:

3) transfer kin leader of my main kin.
4) transfer all other characters.

Finally:

5) transfer all my shared storage.

I will possibly leave ONE character (a kinless one) on Riddermark so I can log on every so often and see if there are any left behind people I know.

[GoldrushSE]

Regarding the naming issue (Sir....), perhaps a GM could help with a manual name change if this is a programming issue?

Ah, well... I contacted a GM, ingame, a bit ago and asked about it and was told he couldn't get past the filter, so I'm stuck with using Siir, in front, instead. I guess it makes sense given it /is/ a title, but it's also used a lot in Elven names, so it's a shame it's filtered. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Still hoping to hear about those characters created only in the creation screen and never logged in.

-Goldrush
*******

[GoldrushSE]

The transfer code doesn't distinguish between "never logged in and created over a year ago" and "last login over a year ago". In both cases transferring characters override the name of that "zombie".

Unfortunately, the name is taken on every single server. On two servers, it was logged in years ago. But, I can't create the character on any other server to transfer it over and take the name of the long-time inactive one because it says "that name is already in use". (rather than 'taken'). So, was just curious to see if anything could be done. Thanks for the reply, though.

-Goldrush
*******

[paintpixie]

I just wanted to throw something out there that maybe hasn't been thought of.

What about people who play anonymously? I used to have a few of those on my friends' list and they would show up as "Unknown" or something (I can't remember exactly). But is it possible that maybe some of the people who are showing up for others as "never logged in" are just anonymous? Does it say "never logged in"?

[Barbanegra]

Im planning to move to europe at next year , I want to know in wich usa servers are playing people from europe english spoken , the idea is to live in eu and keep playing my toons no to start a new one in eu server , thank in advance

[Marancil]

Most US servers have English speaking europeans...

Many europeans already play on US servers, some may have landed on US servers because we did not know the distinction between US and EU when we started playing.

[Seishin]

2. older character A that has been active vs. younger character B that has been active -> A wins (this counters the prank described above as well as Gilean-EU's concern)

The issue with that solution is simple.
On OLD world "CharacterA" was created the first day the game went live.
On NEW world I took the time to create "CharacterA" to act as a placeholder.



Despite my precautions and length of play, your scenario allows another to get "my" character's name if they transfer their "CharacterA" to NEW world before I get to transfer.


Thus, as we all know, there is no perfect solution.


For the record, my character names are in use on many servers. Of the remaining servers, one has all my characters used.

[Fratonia]

I just wanted to throw something out there that maybe hasn't been thought of.

What about people who play anonymously? I used to have a few of those on my friends' list and they would show up as "Unknown" or something (I can't remember exactly). But is it possible that maybe some of the people who are showing up for others as "never logged in" are just anonymous? Does it say "never logged in"?

People that play anonymously show up in the friend list with their name just like anybody else but the area is set to "???". Also you will not be able to see if they are online or not and their last activity time updates only when they log out (if I remember correctly). In order to set "anonymous" status you have to login at least once.

The issue with that solution is simple.
On OLD world "CharacterA" was created the first day the game went live.
On NEW world I took the time to create "CharacterA" to act as a placeholder.

Despite my precautions and length of play, your scenario allows another to get "my" character's name if they transfer their "CharacterA" to NEW world before I get to transfer.

Thus, as we all know, there is no perfect solution.

For the record, my character names are in use on many servers. Of the remaining servers, one has all my characters used.

You are a little late on the train, aren't you?
This has been discussed already and yes, there is no perfect solution because any solution including the one I suggested earlier has its flaws. I accept the current solution as it is. I will have to rename some of my characters and already made up new names for them and reserved all the names I intend to play. Everyone that is attached to his character names should do the same.

[Silmarod]

What really upsets me is,that I will probably loose the names of some of my characters I created 8 years ago and who are still active on a premium account I pay for since spring 2007 to characters that have not even reached lvl 5 or lvl 20,because my server will be the last germanspeaking closing server to process the transfers and my gametime will not be considered.If that should play out that way I will end my 2 subscriptions ,for I have grown rather attached to the personalities my characters have developed over the years for me, and those are linked to their names.It is irrational,I know,but it is a kind of romance that matters to me.The feeling that the loss is suffered because convenience or easy handling prevails over a more just solution worsens the whole thing.

[Hecki]

What about an (ex-)server-affix in the names?
Someone transfer his chars from Imladrid to Crickhollow and the name of the character on Crickhollow is "(Imladres) Aragern" for example.
Everyone could keep their character names.

[Chaos-Khaos]

gang! I am sure people have asked this question, but when do they intend to do the transfers? and I was wondering how or if I will be able to move 6 of toons from brandy to cricket ? will the service be free for a short time or will I have to pay? thanks for your time!!!

[Nyzira]

gang! I am sure people have asked this question, but when do they intend to do the transfers? and I was wondering how or if I will be able to move 6 of toons from brandy to cricket ? will the service be free for a short time or will I have to pay? thanks for your time!!!

They're testing on BR now. When they know when they'll open the transfer for the first couple of worlds, they'll let us know. Yes, you'll be able to transfer toons OFF of Brandy but not TO Brandy and yes it will be free until October. After October, you will have to pay to transfer between surviving worlds but those with toons on servers that are closing will be able to transfer off of the closing worlds for free indefinitely.

[Silmarod]

If resolving naming-conflicts in a fair way should matter more than resolving them in an easy but unfair way,one could consider several criteria like playtime,level,ingame-achievements and date of character-creation to feed a scoring-system where the higher score takes precedence when both characters with conflicting names are active.

It would be easier to accept the loss of a name you really care about,if you lost it to an other player who really played the character and put an amount of effort into its development like you yourself did or even more so.

[Chaos-Khaos]

thanks nyz! im so excited! I found some wonderful people on cricket and made me feel at home!!!!