World Transfers

[Vyvyanne]

Anduin is now available for transfers.

[maartena]

Yes, an official answer to this would be nice. While I'm not inclined to join in with the constant whining about every little thing, frankly I don't think it was very considerate to schedule the new store upgrade on the same day Nimrodel was already schedule to open for transfers. It's not like they're patching a bug that is a serious problem or subject to exploit that needs to be patched asap.

You also don't need to transfer off of Nimrodel ASAP. Normally the transfers are open at 11 AM or so server time, and this will now be 4 hours later at 3 PM server time, if of course everything goes well. Could also be sooner if it goes REALLY well. But I don't think a pre-scheduled 4 hour delay isn't anything to worry about.

You will still get to transfer tomorrow regardless. And if your play time is only in the US mornings, you still get to transfer on Wednesday. I'm not quite sure if I see an actual problem here..... Quite frankly, I would much rather see them schedule a patch *before* a transfer, than e.g. on Wednesday, in the middle of transfers in progress, where people may have to way a lot longer for their transfers to complete as a patch was scheduled. This schedule makes more sense to me, to be honest.

[Thaliruth]

Anduin is now available for transfers.

Thanks, but is very late in our time 17:41 PM German

[maartena]

For some reason, I was able to transfer my toon on Brandywine over to Arkenstone just now.
Don't know if it was a fluke, or maybe they opened up transfers off BW?

Yep, I just copied my "shared items" from brandywine to arkenstone. I have a character ON brandywine (like level 10) I only use for hobbit gifts, and I have been sticking anything good in shared bank.....

I could have selected my character too. Seems like transfers from Brandywine are OPEN.

[Vyvyanne]

We have decided to open up free transfers off of Brandywine or Evernight onto the other destination worlds if players wish to use this to move to a less populated destination.

These free transfers are one way only and will be available temporarily until we turn on transfers between all of the remaining worlds after all closing worlds have had the ability to make their moves. After that point all accounts will receive 3 free transfer tokens and tokens will be required for transfers between the remaining worlds. Closing worlds will always be free and not require a token to transfer off of, forever.

We will still maintain the ability to occasionally turn on free transfers on remaining worlds for special weekends to encourage population balance. Those events will be announced before they occur.

[Vyvyanne]

Frelorn, a question about Tuesday's server patching/maintenance.

Nimrodel is scheduled to transfer that same day. Will Nimrodel's transfer be available immediately when the servers come back up at the estimated 3PM EST Server time, or will that be postponed to the next morning?

Yes. Nimrodel's transfer will be available as soon as the worlds come back online so it will still be available tomorrow as originally posted.

[maartena]

We have decided to open up free transfers off of Brandywine or Evernight onto the other destination worlds if players wish to use this to move to a less populated destination.

These free transfers are one way only and will be available temporarily until we turn on transfers between all of the remaining worlds after all closing worlds have had the ability to make their moves. After that point all accounts will receive 3 free transfer tokens and tokens will be required for transfers between the remaining worlds. Closing worlds will always be free and not require a token to transfer off of, forever.

We will still maintain the ability to occasionally turn on free transfers on remaining worlds for special weekends to encourage population balance. Those events will be announced before they occur.

Thanks Vyvyanne.

A few additional questions:

1) These 3 free transfer tokens, are they PER ACCOUNT, or PER CHARACTER? For instance, if someone moves his 10 characters to Arkenstone today, but wants to eventually go to Brandywine, can he transfer all 10 characters for free when the time comes, or can he only transfer 3 characters for free? Or will he have to wait for a "free transfer weekend" to move his other 7?

2) With regards to transferring off of Evernight, there has been concern (see several other topics on this) about "name reporting" on Laurelin, the only other English server choice, and people not getting a free rename token because they could pick another non-lore name. Are the name restrictions on Laurelin going to be loosened a bit in the near future?

3) Are we allowed to log in to remaining servers once a day, stack up hobbit gifts, save the good ones in shared storage, and move the shared storage on these "free transfer weekends"? Also, does transferring shared items cost a token, and are shared items transfers actually available at any time?

[Vyvyanne]

Thanks Vyvyanne.

A few additional questions:

1) These 3 free transfer tokens, are they PER ACCOUNT, or PER CHARACTER? For instance, if someone moves his 10 characters to Arkenstone today, but wants to eventually go to Brandywine, can he transfer all 10 characters for free when the time comes, or can he only transfer 3 characters for free? Or will he have to wait for a "free transfer weekend" to move his other 7?

Tokens are Per account, so three free character moves after paid transfers are turned back on.

2) With regards to transferring off of Evernight, there has been concern (see several other topics on this) about "name reporting" on Laurelin, the only other English server choice, and people not getting a free rename token because they could pick another non-lore name. Are the name restrictions on Laurelin going to be loosened a bit in the near future?

As part of the server merges, we are aware that there are many people who are entering Laurelin and Belegaer without a full understanding of the rules for a roleplay server. These servers have enforced roleplay names. This means that any name that falls outside of those rules is subject to change. This can come as a shock to those who have played for years with a name they are attached to but which falls outside of these rules.
Until December 31st 2015, we will attempt to practice a relaxed version of the naming rules as though the servers were just like the ones who do not enforce roleplay names. I would encourage those who plan to call these roleplay enforced servers their home to contact In-Game Support to request a rename token as part of a proactive approach to avoid a naming violation. In 2016, the naming policy will revert to the original roleplay enforced version and your name will be subject to those rules.

3) Are we allowed to log in to remaining servers once a day, stack up hobbit gifts, save the good ones in shared storage, and move the shared storage on these "free transfer weekends"? Also, does transferring shared items cost a token, and are shared items transfers actually available at any time?

Shared Item transfer will be a free service even after the character transfer is paid.

[Mar-Evayave]

We have decided to open up free transfers off of Brandywine or Evernight onto the other destination worlds if players wish to use this to move to a less populated destination.

These free transfers are one way only and will be available temporarily until we turn on transfers between all of the remaining worlds after all closing worlds have had the ability to make their moves. After that point all accounts will receive 3 free transfer tokens and tokens will be required for transfers between the remaining worlds. Closing worlds will always be free and not require a token to transfer off of, forever.

We will still maintain the ability to occasionally turn on free transfers on remaining worlds for special weekends to encourage population balance. Those events will be announced before they occur.

Fantastic, thanks for the head's up! Might I suggest this also be posted as a new announcement and in the launcher (if it's not there already -- I'm at school atm and unable to check the launcher) so that those who don't frequent the forums as often will hopefully become aware of this opportunity to get off Brandy and Evernight?

Also, it just occurred to me, but what about using the global messaging system in-game? The same one that flashes messages to all players to tell them the server is about to shut down? That might be a good way to let those on Brandy and Evernight know about the temporary opening to outbound transfers. Flash it every few hours, maybe.

Shared Item transfer will be a free service even after the character transfer is paid.

About this... do you consider it to be abusing the system? Right now this means players could be getting anywhere between 10-29 (char creation is turned off on the 19 closing servers, right? so only those with chars still there could get the extra 19) silver hobbit gifts per day, and the same number of gold gifts per week. It seems like that would be abusing the ability to freely transfer shared items. Log into all servers, roll the dice, transfer everything to main server.

[Vyvyanne]

Fantastic, thanks for the head's up! Might I suggest this also be posted as a new announcement and in the launcher (if it's not there already -- I'm at school atm and unable to check the launcher) so that those who don't frequent the forums as often will hopefully become aware of this opportunity to get off Brandy and Evernight?

Also, it just occurred to me, but what about using the global messaging system in-game? The same one that flashes messages to all players to tell them the server is about to shut down? That might be a good way to let those on Brandy and Evernight know about the temporary opening to outbound transfers. Flash it every few hours, maybe.



About this... do you consider it to be abusing the system? Right now this means players could be getting anywhere between 10-29 (char creation is turned off on the 19 closing servers, right? so only those with chars still there could get the extra 19) silver hobbit gifts per day, and the same number of gold gifts per week. It seems like that would be abusing the ability to freely transfer shared items. Log into all servers, roll the dice, transfer everything to main server.

We will look at adding to the launcher. I think players would find it annoying to see it as an in-game repeated world message.

On Hobbit gifts: If we find that this is being abused we will change the system to limit abuse. Also note the worlds are segmented between the two regions, so you will only transfer goods between 5 worlds tops.

[BangoTwinkletoes]

As part of the server merges, we are aware that there are many people who are entering Laurelin and Belegaer without a full understanding of the rules for a roleplay server. These servers have enforced roleplay names. This means that any name that falls outside of those rules is subject to change. This can come as a shock to those who have played for years with a name they are attached to but which falls outside of these rules.
Until December 31st 2015, we will attempt to practice a relaxed version of the naming rules as though the servers were just like the ones who do not enforce roleplay names. I would encourage those who plan to call these roleplay enforced servers their home to contact In-Game Support to request a rename token as part of a proactive approach to avoid a naming violation. In 2016, the naming policy will revert to the original roleplay enforced version and your name will be subject to those rules.

About time too. The inability of your company's GMs to deal with name violation tickets with discretion and give people leeway on borderline and trivial naming issues has caused huge amount of damage, both to the reputation of the Laurelin as a roleplaying community and to the reputation of your GMs.

[maartena]

Fantastic, thanks for the head's up! Might I suggest this also be posted as a new announcement and in the launcher (if it's not there already -- I'm at school atm and unable to check the launcher) so that those who don't frequent the forums as often will hopefully become aware of this opportunity to get off Brandy and Evernight?

Also, it just occurred to me, but what about using the global messaging system in-game? The same one that flashes messages to all players to tell them the server is about to shut down? That might be a good way to let those on Brandy and Evernight know about the temporary opening to outbound transfers. Flash it every few hours, maybe.

I don't think the in-game messaging is needed, it will become too spammy.... But a announcement on the LAUNCHER would be nice. Word will probably spread fast enough about it, but perhaps a change in the launcher after tomorrow's patch is appropriate. I agree.

About this... do you consider it to be abusing the system? Right now this means players could be getting anywhere between 10-29 (char creation is turned off on the 19 closing servers, right? so only those with chars still there could get the extra 19) silver hobbit gifts per day, and the same number of gold gifts per week. It seems like that would be abusing the ability to freely transfer shared items. Log into all servers, roll the dice, transfer everything to main server.

I was wondering about this myself. I currently have a left-behind toon on Riddermark, Firefoot, and Nimrodel, AND I have baby toons on Brandywine, Landroval, Gladden and Crickhollow, all out of intro, all in front of a vault somewhere, and I log them in from time to time (not every day, I forget) to get hobbit gifts. When a GOOD one appears, I put it in shared storage. In the case of Riddermark and Firefoot I have already transferred shared stuff twice because a nice 5000-rep tome appeared on one, and mithril coins appeared on the other..... I plan to make a few more beornings on closing servers (fastest intro) for the same reason.

But the question is indeed: Is this "abusing the system"? Obviously it is only temporary, as come December 31st there will be no more servers to log on to besides the 5 in your realm, so it is going down from 19 or 20 to just 5..... but hey, 5 hobbit gifts a day is better than one.

Of course you are ALWAYS going to be allowed 5 hobbit gifts a day, because you get to play on 5 servers. Or 10 if you play in both realms. And since shared data cannot be attached to a "transfer token" or a "price" (especially since you shouldn't be expected to pay TWICE if you want to transfer 1 character with its shared data from A to B) it would have to remain free.

The "abuse" question is interesting. If it is, I am already guilty, although not on a grand scale.

[Marcho_Brandybuck]

Any news about the new of hardware? I recently moved to Evernight from Eldar. Nice to see a lot of people all over Middle-earth, but ... When the population or part of the population of Snowburne and Whitywindle move to Evernight, will be worse situation than it is now on the Brandywine.

[spelunker]

We have decided to open up free transfers off of Brandywine or Evernight onto the other destination worlds if players wish to use this to move to a less populated destination.

These free transfers are one way only and will be available temporarily until we turn on transfers between all of the remaining worlds after all closing worlds have had the ability to make their moves. After that point all accounts will receive 3 free transfer tokens and tokens will be required for transfers between the remaining worlds. Closing worlds will always be free and not require a token to transfer off of, forever.

We will still maintain the ability to occasionally turn on free transfers on remaining worlds for special weekends to encourage population balance. Those events will be announced before they occur.

Wait, so if I brought all my characters from Elendilmir to Landroval, and now I find that the RP community on Landroval is a bit too intrusive for my tastes, I'm stuck with all but 3 of them on Landy unless I pay for it?

This seems a bit disingenuous, when the initial statement about this said we would have an opportunity to move again if our initial choice for a new server wasn't one we were happy with. So now, if we're not happy with our initial choice, we are free to try something else, so long as we only have 3 characters?

1 free move between remaining servers for the entire account, or if there are technical limitations on this, 1 free token for every character slot a player has unlocked would be far more appropriate.

[Mar-Evayave]

We will look at adding to the launcher. I think players would find it annoying to see it as an in-game repeated world message.

Awesome, thanks! And I suppose you (and Maartena) are right. It probably would be too spammy. I just worry about those who somehow never seem to find out about stuff.

On Hobbit gifts: If we find that this is being abused we will change the system to limit abuse. Also note the worlds are segmented between the two regions, so you will only transfer goods between 5 worlds tops.

Doh, I'd forgotten about the Atlantic figuratively (and soon to be literally) dividing the servers.

I don't think the in-game messaging is needed, it will become too spammy.... But a announcement on the LAUNCHER would be nice. Word will probably spread fast enough about it, but perhaps a change in the launcher after tomorrow's patch is appropriate. I agree.

One would think so, and perhaps Brandywine will be different. But it still astounded me how many people in Ridder's /world were still asking about the transfer without any clue what it was about, right up until the days before Riddermark opened to the system. xD

I was wondering about this myself. I currently have a left-behind toon on Riddermark, Firefoot, and Nimrodel, AND I have baby toons on Brandywine, Landroval, Gladden and Crickhollow, all out of intro, all in front of a vault somewhere, and I log them in from time to time (not every day, I forget) to get hobbit gifts. When a GOOD one appears, I put it in shared storage. In the case of Riddermark and Firefoot I have already transferred shared stuff twice because a nice 5000-rep tome appeared on one, and mithril coins appeared on the other..... I plan to make a few more beornings on closing servers (fastest intro) for the same reason.

But the question is indeed: Is this "abusing the system"? Obviously it is only temporary, as come December 31st there will be no more servers to log on to besides the 5 in your realm, so it is going down from 19 or 20 to just 5..... but hey, 5 hobbit gifts a day is better than one.

Of course you are ALWAYS going to be allowed 5 hobbit gifts a day, because you get to play on 5 servers. Or 10 if you play in both realms. And since shared data cannot be attached to a "transfer token" or a "price" (especially since you shouldn't be expected to pay TWICE if you want to transfer 1 character with its shared data from A to B) it would have to remain free.

The "abuse" question is interesting. If it is, I am already guilty, although not on a grand scale.

Yeah, I still have a baby back on Riddermark and 2-3 on a few other servers. I don't really play them. The 2-3 are for playing music on other servers and I'll probably end up deleting the baby (it's a lvl 6 Beorning, but I already have a higher level Beorning on Landroval). But any time I log into another server, for whatever reason, I get the hobbit gifts just to get it out of my notification panel.

Which means I end up with these gifts hanging around. It seems wasteful to delete them simply because I don't play the server, but at the same time it does feel kinda cheating if I were to do this all the time and then transfer them to Landroval. On the flip side, it is built into the system. The only thing that has changed now is the ability to transfer shared items. The old transfer system didn't support that.

I guess what would be nice to know, at what point would Turbine consider it to be abusing the system?

Wait, so if I brought all my characters from Elendilmir to Landroval, and now I find that the RP community on Landroval is a bit too intrusive for my tastes, I'm stuck with all but 3 of them on Landy unless I pay for it?

Hm, we have come to different interpretations of what Vyv said. I read it that, after the closing worlds have had their chance, transfers between the 5 and 5 will reopen. And then after a little bit of that, they will become $$$-only and 3 tokens will be bestowed to everyone.

[Vyvyanne]

Any news about the new of hardware? I recently moved to Evernight from Eldar. Nice to see a lot of people all over Middle-earth, but ... When the population or part of the population of Snowburne and Whitywindle move to Evernight, will be worse situation than it is now on the Brandywine.

The new hardware is coming along great. We have all the equipment in place and built out and are now onto the arduous task of moving all of the software and data from the old hardware to new, making sure connections are correct, running QA tests etc. We should be having a load test on the new Bullroarer Beta world soon and will make announcements about it as soon as we have a date locked down. The aim is to have everything completed and live before the US Thanksgiving holiday. In the meantime we are monitoring the Evernight population closely, have added some additional hardware resources to it to increase capacity and if we start seeing issues we might have to slow down transfers, but we hope it will not come to that as I know everyone on the closing worlds is looking forward to their opportunity to transfer.

[DKenny]

Tokens are Per account, so three free character moves after paid transfers are turned back on......

Sorry, but still not 100% clear on this. If I do a single transfer, from say Gladden to Brandywine (once that's open) and select transfer all (i.e. all characters plus shared) how will this work? Say I have 5 chars on Gladden at the time. Will the entire move count as one? Or is it going to take 3 free tokens and ask for payment for the other 2 chars to move?

[Vyvyanne]

Wait, so if I brought all my characters from Elendilmir to Landroval, and now I find that the RP community on Landroval is a bit too intrusive for my tastes, I'm stuck with all but 3 of them on Landy unless I pay for it?

This seems a bit disingenuous, when the initial statement about this said we would have an opportunity to move again if our initial choice for a new server wasn't one we were happy with. So now, if we're not happy with our initial choice, we are free to try something else, so long as we only have 3 characters?

1 free move between remaining servers for the entire account, or if there are technical limitations on this, 1 free token for every character slot a player has unlocked would be far more appropriate.

There are technical limitations to this and we also found that there is too much room for abuse if we allow endless free transfers between the worlds, which is why we have gone with this plan: 3 free moves should you be unhappy with your initial choice and the occasional window of free moves like what we are doing for Brandywine and Evernight now, where moves are one direction only.

[maartena]

Awesome, thanks! And I suppose you (and Maartena) are right. It probably would be too spammy. I just worry about those who somehow never seem to find out about stuff.

If you can't be bothered to read the patch message screen in the login client, there is not much that can be done. Your ADHD has kicked in to a level of unimaginable proportions.

[maartena]

Vyvyanne,

I would like to thank you for your level of interactive participation on these forums. Your answers to questions do make the difference. Please keep that up, as time allows of course!

[Vyvyanne]

Sorry, but still not 100% clear on this. If I do a single transfer, from say Gladden to Brandywine (once that's open) and select transfer all (i.e. all characters plus shared) how will this work? Say I have 5 chars on Gladden at the time. Will the entire move count as one? Or is it going to take 3 free tokens and ask for payment for the other 2 chars to move?

When the services are paid it will work similar to how the system worked previously, as in 1 token per character. We have just added the Account items move which will be always free and the ability to move all characters at once if you wish to do so. If you select all characters, on the confirmation screen of the wizard, it will total up the tokens needed for you. In this example it will be 5 characters = 5 tokens. If you do not have enough tokens to pay for the move, it will provide a link to get more. You can then go back and choose characters individually if you do not wish to move all of them, get more tokens, or wait for a window of free transfers to your preferred destination. Or any combo of the three.

[Jillymala]

The new hardware is coming along great. We have all the equipment in place and built out and are now onto the arduous task of moving all of the software and data from the old hardware to new, making sure connections are correct, running QA tests etc. We should be having a load test on the new Bullroarer Beta world soon and will make announcements about it as soon as we have a date locked down. The aim is to have everything completed and live before the US Thanksgiving holiday. In the meantime we are monitoring the Evernight population closely, have added some additional hardware resources to it to increase capacity and if we start seeing issues we might have to slow down transfers, but we hope it will not come to that as I know everyone on the closing worlds is looking forward to their opportunity to transfer.

Thanks for letting people leave Evernight, it's quickly becoming incredibly crowded and the lag in Ettens makes pvp unplayable. We've still got more servers, including the biggest sunsetting server (Snowy) closing and if it's THIS bad now I can't even imagine trying to play when they come. At the moment Ettens is really really unplayable at some points, 20 second skill lag, skills not firing, slideshow movement.

Please tell me this is going to be all fixed with the new server hardware?

[camenecium]

As part of the server merges, we are aware that there are many people who are entering Laurelin and Belegaer without a full understanding of the rules for a roleplay server. These servers have enforced roleplay names. This means that any name that falls outside of those rules is subject to change. This can come as a shock to those who have played for years with a name they are attached to but which falls outside of these rules.

Until December 31st 2015, we will attempt to practice a relaxed version of the naming rules as though the servers were just like the ones who do not enforce roleplay names. I would encourage those who plan to call these roleplay enforced servers their home to contact In-Game Support to request a rename token as part of a proactive approach to avoid a naming violation. In 2016, the naming policy will revert to the original roleplay enforced version and your name will be subject to those rules.

The current issue arose from not explicitly communicating the naming policy during the transfer process, and this approach seems like it suffers from the same problem: a lack of immediate, explicit communication with the people it affects.

How do you intend to communicate these two events, the relaxing of the rules and then the tightening of them? Many people do not read the forums and do not subscribe to /world (or have unsubscribed because of the tension this situation has created.) Given the policy works by having players report names, how are existing players supposed to know about this change? Will there be any communication back from support letting them know why their reporting is being ignored?

You must at a minimum update the posted policy, at the top, with this plan. It hasn't been changed yet as far as I can see.

I moved to Laurelin from Landroval specifically because of the naming policy. I'd really rather know up front if you are slow-boiling the frog and plan or are even just entertaining the notion that the naming policy will not return. This seems like the kind of mis-step in a change management process that really can't be backed out later. The anger and frustration deferred now will be paid back with interest that far into the future.

[Mar-Evayave]

The new hardware is coming along great. We have all the equipment in place and built out and are now onto the arduous task of moving all of the software and data from the old hardware to new, making sure connections are correct, running QA tests etc. We should be having a load test on the new Bullroarer Beta world soon and will make announcements about it as soon as we have a date locked down. The aim is to have everything completed and live before the US Thanksgiving holiday. In the meantime we are monitoring the Evernight population closely, have added some additional hardware resources to it to increase capacity and if we start seeing issues we might have to slow down transfers, but we hope it will not come to that as I know everyone on the closing worlds is looking forward to their opportunity to transfer.

I imagine it is more or less impossible to transfer the live data while the live data is still active. What kind of downtime (for data transfer) are you anticipating for when the new hardware goes live?

If you can't be bothered to read the patch message screen in the login client, there is not much that can't be done. Your ADHD has kicked in to a level of unimaginable proportions.

lol! True enough.

[Strmi]

? Right now this means players could be getting anywhere between 10-29 (char creation is turned off on the 19 closing servers, right? so only those with chars still there could get the extra 19) silver hobbit gifts per day, and the same number of gold gifts per week. It seems like that would be abusing the ability to freely transfer shared items. Log into all servers, roll the dice, transfer everything to main server.

Because somebody actually got something good from hobbit gifts?only useful so far in all this time - fate IV and one xp tome that i didn't even use