World Transfers

[Tel'aran'rhiod]

In the USA, aside from mainly retail, dining & entertainment (movie theaters), critical & emergency services, and SOME technical support lines (mainly corps such as Adobe, Microsoft), nearly EVERYONE has the day after Thanksgiving off work - either as a paid holiday or un-paid time off (if they have the USA traditional standard Mon-Fri 40 hour work week).

For the programmers and such at Turbine, the retail Black Friday means nothing but an extended holiday weekend - though it means EVERYTHING to WalMart, where NO-ONE gets that day off (except I did when my mom died on that day).

You may want to scroll up for my note about the biggest employer by far not giving employees that day off (and people can't all just take it as an unpaid day). Here in Boston several of the biggest employers in the city also don't give people that Friday off. Some offer a choice of dates (Columbus Day or that Friday, but not both). With federal employees working and many orgs following their lead for holidays, lots of people end up working. I'm happy to say I'm not one of them!

Edit: looks like the most recent SHRM survey indicated ~25% of the U.S. will not treat that Friday as a holiday. That's better than last year at least (33%). This survey included responses from 600+ randomly selected HR professionals at organizations of all sizes throughout the United States.

[Wirbel]

You may want to scroll up for my note about the biggest employer by far not giving employees that day off (and people can't all just take it as an unpaid day). Here in Boston several of the biggest employers in the city also don't give people that Friday off. Some offer a choice of dates (Columbus Day or that Friday, but not both). With federal employees working and many orgs following their lead for holidays, lots of people end up working. I'm happy to say I'm not one of them!

Edit: looks like the most recent SHRM survey indicated ~25% of the U.S. will not treat that Friday as a holiday. That's better than last year at least (33%). This survey included responses from 600+ randomly selected HR professionals at organizations of all sizes throughout the United States.

I don't think 600 is a sufficient sample for the given population.

[Marancil]

I have added some Turbine-style time lines, so you know EXACTLY when it happens.

We need more fun in this thread.

[Amrundir]

I have added some Turbine-style time lines, so you know EXACTLY when it happens.

The Harbinger of Soon. My mistake.

[Linilya]

I have added some Turbine-style time lines, so you know EXACTLY when it happens.

Is this list of order actually official? I haven't seen anything discussing order in any of the Dev posts about world transfers.

I'm just curious because my main Kinship is on Snowbourne, and if this is accurate it would appear that we will be waiting a while to transfer.

[maartena]

Is this list of order actually official? I haven't seen anything discussing order in any of the Dev posts about world transfers.

I'm just curious because my main Kinship is on Snowbourne, and if this is accurate it would appear that we will be waiting a while to transfer.

Yes, it is based on this officially announced order: https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articl...e-announcement

Especially this phrase from the announcement: "Then the worlds that are closing will be opened for transfer, a few at a time, in the order they are listed below."

Elendilmir and Estel are active right now.
Riddermark and Gilrain will open next week.

They will go down the list as announced. The order is correct, however the exact time frame is not yet know. It is also possible that after the first few servers are out of the way, they will start bumping up the frequency of enabling servers for transfer.

Meneldor is the final US server to move, and Snowbourn is the final EU server to move.

[SulTura]

What a thread -- thanks for all the info.

On names, is it first come, first served -- not counting residents "of-the-same-name" who are less than one year old on the destination server, who the incomer bumps?
What happens when a second, third and fourth incomer "of-the-same-name" follows? Has not the first incomer lived less than a year on that world?

On Brandywine, is there a way to get an email notification when she does become available, later in the year?
Is it possible to know what server populations on all worlds are, at that time?

Thanks
Clan Tura

[RJFerret]

On names, is it first come, first served -- not counting residents "of-the-same-name" who are less than one year old on the destination server, who the incomer bumps?
What happens when a second, third and fourth incomer "of-the-same-name" follows? Has not the first incomer lived less than a year on that world?

On Brandywine, is there a way to get an email notification when she does become available, later in the year?
Is it possible to know what server populations on all worlds are, at that time?

OK, so someone goes to a world with a duplicate name, so there's now a "name" and "name-1". Done. Another person comes, they become "name-2". Then "name-3", and so on.

No, they are not emailing notifications of any type, the best bet is to watch the Dev Tracker here on the forums for when it's posted in the Announcements thread.

They have never published server populations, folks have just inferred amounts from third party sources counting logins or individuals looking at the "Who" function in worlds and comparing between.

[Vilan]

On names, is it first come, first served -- not counting residents "of-the-same-name" who are less than one year old on the destination server, who the incomer bumps?
What happens when a second, third and fourth incomer "of-the-same-name" follows? Has not the first incomer lived less than a year on that world?

The requirement to be safe from bumping is to have logged on at least once in the past year, not to have created your character more than a year ago. If a character Milmo has been existing on Arkenstone since 2007 but never played since then, and a new Milmo transfers in, the new one will be Milmo and the older one will become Milmo-1. Any further incoming Milmos will be Milmo-2, Milmo-3, etc.

[maartena]

On names, is it first come, first served -- not counting residents "of-the-same-name" who are less than one year old on the destination server, who the incomer bumps?
What happens when a second, third and fourth incomer "of-the-same-name" follows? Has not the first incomer lived less than a year on that world?

Once a name is claimed from an inactive person, the new owner of the name will be considered active and can no longer lose the name, EXCEPT when the new owner will also become inactive for a full year, and someone transfers at that point. So if you move from server A to server B, and on server B there is a character called "Sultura" that has been inactive for more than one year, your incoming character will become "Sultura", and that inactive character will become "Sultura-1". If a week later a new person with the name "Sultura" on server C also moves to server B, that person will become "Sultura-2".

On Brandywine, is there a way to get an email notification when she does become available, later in the year?

I don't think they will email that out anymore, but it is safe to say that that will be announced in the launcher. Also, there will be no time limit if you have characters on a closing server, so even if you wait till 2017 or later, you will be able to transfer from a CLOSING server to Brandywine for free.

Is it possible to know what server populations on all worlds are, at that time?

Thanks
Clan Tura

Turbine has never released that information, and probably never will. It is important to note that the login information that IS publicly available doesn't tell the whole story. For instance, Gladden is the "steam preferred" server, and as a result has much higher login count, but actually has a lower count of level 100 characters than Arkenstone, at least it did this week on several occasions when I checked. This might be because Arkenstone was a VERY popular destination for Elendilmir players, and this week they have probably been much more active, so there is that to take in account. When I leveled a character on Gladden however, I did notice similar things when comparing to other servers. Gladden is easily the 2nd population after Brandywine, but the average level is much lower because it currently attracts more new players than other server. Just something to think about. If you are looking for "most level 100s", Brandywine is obviously your best pick, but I think I can say with confidence that Landroval, even though it is the 3d server in logins, has more level 100s than Gladden.

Before I moved my level 100 from Gladden to Arkenstone, I noticed that - for instance - that the amount of logins on Arkenstone was 50% less than Gladden as it was a smaller server, but every time I checked the amount of level 100s on Gladden was only around 5 to 10% higher. With the Elendilmir migration, this seems to have shifted a little bit. This could give you can indication of the population, and might be helpful in deciding what server is best.

That said, EVERY server will be loaded with level 100s once all these migrations are done, so I would just focus which COMMUNITY you like best, not the raw numbers. They don't make sense now, and they will be changed completely over the next 3 months. The numbers are simply not representative any longer, and with a lot of Brandywiners saying they want to move away FROM that server, I suspect that come January 2016, the server populations will be completely different.

As said: Focus on what community you like best, not on the logon numbers.

[Jurny]

For instance, Gladden is the "steam preferred" server, and as a result has much higher login count, but actually has a lower count of level 100 characters than Arkenstone, at least it did this week on several occasions when I checked. This might be because Arkenstone was a VERY popular destination for Elendilmir players, and this week they have probably been much more active, so there is that to take in account. When I leveled a character on Gladden however, I did notice similar things when comparing to other servers. Gladden is easily the 2nd population after Brandywine, but the average level is much lower because it currently attracts more new players than other server. Just something to think about. If you are looking for "most level 100s", Brandywine is obviously your best pick, but I think I can say with confidence that Landroval, even though it is the 3d server in logins, has more level 100s than Gladden.

Before I moved my level 100 from Gladden to Arkenstone, I noticed that - for instance - that the amount of logins on Arkenstone was 50% less than Gladden as it was a smaller server, but every time I checked the amount of level 100s on Gladden was only around 5 to 10% higher. With the Elendilmir migration, this seems to have shifted a little bit. This could give you can indication of the population, and might be helpful in deciding what server is best.

Where do you get your information from any way!? This is all assumptions on your part. Not that it matters much, but I could have sworn that Crickhollow was the most recent steam preferred server.

In response to how many level 100's any given server might have it is purely speculation on your part, again. There is no way any 1 could know for sure what that number is, since so many people are marked as anonymous.

Since all of this will change in the future, one must wonder why any 1 would assume to have knowkledge of something that is impossible to predict.

[maartena]

Where do you get your information from any way!? This is all assumptions on your part. Not that it matters much, but I could have sworn that Crickhollow was the most recent steam preferred server.

In response to how many level 100's any given server might have it is purely speculation on your part, again. There is no way any 1 could know for sure what that number is, since so many people are marked as anonymous.

Since all of this will change in the future, one must wonder why any 1 would assume to have knowkledge of something that is impossible to predict.

1) The login information is gathered from several German sites, they have been posted in this thread before, but you can easily find them online by doing a Google search. That data gives you a good indication how many people log on to a server on a daily basis.

2) The amount of level 100s on a server can be gotten in game. In the last 6 months especially I have been going around the 4 servers I was initially considering (I was not considering Brandywine), and created characters. I used these characters to monitor the world chat, and use he social panel to see how many level 100s are online by filtering by level. If there are more than 100 level 100s on, it doesn't show if a number, just 100>, but you can do some more filtering, such as level 100s in Bree, Dol Amroth, and some of the main instances that are run often that are not using upscaling of lower level users.

Now, finding the number of max-level players is not completely accurate, because it only counts the number of level 100s that are not anonymous. If more users on one server are anonymous than on another server, the results will be skewed. I also did a search for some lower levels using the social panel. For instance, where the amount of level 100s on Gladden was significantly lower compared to the number of logins, the number of level 30-50 for instance was much higher on Gladden.

But you can use the social panel inside the game to your knowledge, and with having 2 accounts it is easy to compare 2 servers at the same to see how they are doing throughout the night. I have done this on Gladden, Landroval, Arkenstone and Crickhollow, although of course I was only able to compare 2 at the very same time.

It does take a little work, but based on that information you can really get a feel which servers have what kind of players and what level of players. Now, as I said the numbers aren't going to matter much because ALL servers are going to get an influx of players, and ALL servers will have plenty of level 100s to play with, but it is important to know that looking at ONLY the login information to make your server selection, such as "I will go to the busiest server, because many logins means many players", that this doesn't necessarily means that the server you are looking at has the type of players you are looking for. Using the above tactics it became clear very quickly that Landroval has LESS logins per minute, but MORE level 100s, because Gladden has a much higher percentage of players that are still leveling up due to its "Preferred" status on Steam. That doesn't mean Gladden doesn't have a LOT of level 100s, because they most certainly have the most after Brandy and Landy, but they aren't really that much higher than Crick and Arken, when it comes to max level toons.

Again, it should not matter: Go to the server that has the best community, as the amount of players will change drastically over the next 3 months, and a quality community goes a lot longer than simply quantity of players. And those communities will all change as well because ALL the remaining servers will have an immigrant MAJORITY when this is all said and done. And indeed, no one can look into the future, we can only see the present and the past.

It's going to be an interesting few months coming up.....

[sentinel1]

Maartena, that is AWESOME - you are a LOTRO junkie (even more than me!) Not everyone gives you credit for your knowledge, but I do. Keep up the good work

[Beaniemooch]

Where do you get your information from any way!? This is all assumptions on your part. Not that it matters much, but I could have sworn that Crickhollow was the most recent steam preferred server.

Gladden stopped being the preferred server awhile back. I believe it was Crickhollow that was preferred server next also.

[Oldarsi]

maybe no houses for final transferer.
at least no chance to make kinship colony.

[SotF]

Just curious, but has anything been said about extending the free transfer period? I've yet to be able to transfer and the official announcements still list October as when they're charging again.

[maartena]

Just curious, but has anything been said about extending the free transfer period? I've yet to be able to transfer and the official announcements still list October as when they're charging again.

Yeah that information is out of date and can be disregarded. They really should edit it, as people keep referring to the Oct. 1st date.

[Aedelric2]

1) The login information is gathered from several German sites, they have been posted in this thread before, but you can easily find them online by doing a Google search. That data gives you a good indication how many people log on to a server on a daily basis.

2) The amount of level 100s on a server can be gotten in game. In the last 6 months especially I have been going around the 4 servers I was initially considering (I was not considering Brandywine), and created characters. I used these characters to monitor the world chat, and use he social panel to see how many level 100s are online by filtering by level. If there are more than 100 level 100s on, it doesn't show if a number, just 100>, but you can do some more filtering, such as level 100s in Bree, Dol Amroth, and some of the main instances that are run often that are not using upscaling of lower level users.

Now, finding the number of max-level players is not completely accurate, because it only counts the number of level 100s that are not anonymous. If more users on one server are anonymous than on another server, the results will be skewed. I also did a search for some lower levels using the social panel. For instance, where the amount of level 100s on Gladden was significantly lower compared to the number of logins, the number of level 30-50 for instance was much higher on Gladden.

But you can use the social panel inside the game to your knowledge, and with having 2 accounts it is easy to compare 2 servers at the same to see how they are doing throughout the night. I have done this on Gladden, Landroval, Arkenstone and Crickhollow, although of course I was only able to compare 2 at the very same time.

It does take a little work, but based on that information you can really get a feel which servers have what kind of players and what level of players. Now, as I said the numbers aren't going to matter much because ALL servers are going to get an influx of players, and ALL servers will have plenty of level 100s to play with, but it is important to know that looking at ONLY the login information to make your server selection, such as "I will go to the busiest server, because many logins means many players", that this doesn't necessarily means that the server you are looking at has the type of players you are looking for. Using the above tactics it became clear very quickly that Landroval has LESS logins per minute, but MORE level 100s, because Gladden has a much higher percentage of players that are still leveling up due to its "Preferred" status on Steam. That doesn't mean Gladden doesn't have a LOT of level 100s, because they most certainly have the most after Brandy and Landy, but they aren't really that much higher than Crick and Arken, when it comes to max level toons.

Again, it should not matter: Go to the server that has the best community, as the amount of players will change drastically over the next 3 months, and a quality community goes a lot longer than simply quantity of players. And those communities will all change as well because ALL the remaining servers will have an immigrant MAJORITY when this is all said and done. And indeed, no one can look into the future, we can only see the present and the past.

It's going to be an interesting few months coming up.....

That is very interesting considering I did my own experiment several weeks after Turbine announced they were going to consolidate servers.

I selected 9 servers, and logged in every 2 hours. I used the social panel to track how many people were online for level increments of 10 (example 1-10). I then used Excel to graph the numbers I wrote down. Unfortunately, I only did this for a 24 hour period. But it ended up that Gladden was ranked third for my estimated total population for that day. Now this method didn't take into account players that were online for multiple hours, and of course it can't possible take into account the people that didn't log in while I was online. It also only samples 9 servers. So it has its flaws. However, I don't think Gladden is second highest in population any more at least not based on the little bit of data I have.

Maartena is absolutely right though. What ever we thought the populations of the servers was is going to change tremendously.

[Aedelric2]

You may want to scroll up for my note about the biggest employer by far not giving employees that day off (and people can't all just take it as an unpaid day). Here in Boston several of the biggest employers in the city also don't give people that Friday off. Some offer a choice of dates (Columbus Day or that Friday, but not both). With federal employees working and many orgs following their lead for holidays, lots of people end up working. I'm happy to say I'm not one of them!

Edit: looks like the most recent SHRM survey indicated ~25% of the U.S. will not treat that Friday as a holiday. That's better than last year at least (33%). This survey included responses from 600+ randomly selected HR professionals at organizations of all sizes throughout the United States.

The biggest employer in my city gives people the Friday following Thanksgiving off. I also have relatives that work for Walmart; they might get part of the day off if they are lucky. I think it really depends on who you work for, the type of company, location, etc.

[Jurny]

Gladden stopped being the preferred server awhile back. I believe it was Crickhollow that was preferred server next also.

Thank you so much for clarifying this! If you read a certain some 1's assumptions over and over again, sooner or later you start to believe it yourself, even when you know they are spouting misinformation repeatedly.



I sure wish some 1 would rein it in, it's getting old.

[Agamur]

Question!

I checked the transfer button again today and I noticed Palantir was gone from the "copy" list, am I correct that the transfer option checks:

• Is a server open for transfer?
• Does the logged in account have characters on that server?

If yes; it shows the server.
If no; it doesn't.

Cause I don't see any servers right now, but maybe that's because I don't have characters on the servers that are open for transfers.

[Aedelric2]

Question!

I checked the transfer button again today and I noticed Palantir was gone from the "copy" list, am I correct that the transfer option checks:

• Is a server open for transfer?
• Does the logged in account have characters on that server?

If yes; it shows the server.
If no; it doesn't.

Cause I don't see any servers right now, but maybe that's because I don't have characters on the servers that are open for transfers.

It seems to do that. At least it did for me.

[Castorix]

Question!

I checked the transfer button again today and I noticed Palantir was gone from the "copy" list, am I correct that the transfer option checks:

• Is a server open for transfer?
• Does the logged in account have characters on that server?

If yes; it shows the server.
If no; it doesn't.

Cause I don't see any servers right now, but maybe that's because I don't have characters on the servers that are open for transfers.

Yes.
(although the servers/characters list sometimes changes, like on the last week-end for example)

Amrundir explained well how transfers work in a post in this thread :
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...65#post7445465

[Chouxbun]

Don't want to be pedantic but if you have ever had characters on a server it shows in your list - even if you deleted them all - as you may have account items on the server.

For instance, I have no longer have characters on Elendilmir but it is showing in my list purely because of the account/shared items. To be honest, I'm not even sure there's anything in those areas so maybe Turbine are just playing safe

[Aedelric2]

I created a guide that should explain the whole process step-by-step. Since it is mainly for those of us who haven't transferred yet know what to expect, I would very much like all the folks who have transferred to double check me. Thanks. https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...12#post7447112