World Transfers

[DKenny]

I have to agree with this post.

Players were led to believe that they would have a chance to transfer all of their characters off a remaining world if the environment on that server was not what they expected.

Why do I feel that Turbine's money people are getting in the way of good and honest customer relations?

Players did not create this situation. Turbine created the situation. Players should not be worse off.

I agree as well. The pre-transfer announcements were pretty clear on what was intended. Plans were made on that basis. Upon initial opening of transfers, US transfers were closed almost immediately. The following week there was a 48 hour 'test' opening of transfers. The exploiters exploited, and benefited from their exploits, as they always seem to. As a sincere player I tried to help with the testing, transferring only a couple low level chars created expressly for the purpose of, well, testing. It was assumed, at that point, that after any problems were identified and addressed, transfers would be opened again. Then we were told such transfers would be delayed until after the closing servers transferred. Now we're told we only get 3 free char transfers (plus unspecified other opportunities, which we can't count on and might not be around to use).

This situation was created by first, Turbine closing servers and second by announcing how transfers would proceed and then radically changing it. Having characters on multiple servers, in multiple kins etc. created enough of a planning challenge without the process being changed as it has been.

Sorry, but the "stay where you are for now" advice isn't very appealing either. As things have evolved we can't count on how the final situation will end up working. And the situation for the first lower population servers has been that what was already a less active environment quickly became a ghost town. One might just as well suggest that we quit playing entirely and come back in Jan. 2016.

[Calta]

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



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.




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

Replying to the bold bit.
Thank you for this sane and practical approach to this delicate issue. Thank you listening to the sensible suggestions made in between the drama in many threads. I feel as if I popped a hope token. Well done.

[maartena]

I have to agree with this post.

Players were led to believe that they would have a chance to transfer all of their characters off a remaining world if the environment on that server was not what they expected.

Why do I feel that Turbine's money people are getting in the way of good and honest customer relations?

Players did not create this situation. Turbine created the situation. Players should not be worse off.

It would appear there will be "free transfer weekends" as well where you can move around freely with all your characters from one server to another. I am expecting that such a free transfer weekend will occur as soon as the transfers between the servers are opened up.

But Turbine has definitely changed their mind several times over the last 3 months when it comes to the transfers. About 3 months ago, it was still the plan to give remaining servers "a good solid 30 days" to transfer between each other to give everyone a chance to find the best home world. That all changed when the 48 hour transfer window happened and people were found to abuse the system and exploit it somehow. Besides nabbing hobbit presents on all 5 servers I don't know what this abuse/exploit may have been, but I can see it is a lot easier to move to another server, troll the hell out of it for an hour, and then move back or something. I don't know. But somehow, exploits/abuse were detected, and they started to change their stance on the transfers.

At first, Vyvyanne made a statement that there were going to be limits, saying they didn't know "how free they would be", but that the very likely outcome was going to be a limited amount of transfers per character. (See one of the posts above where one scenario was pinpointed as the most likely scenario). I honestly don't mind about the 3 tokens..... they will exist indefinitely, and you can use them much, much later if you so prefer. Great.

What does worry me is these "free transfer weekends". First, I think a weekend is too short. There are many people who take the weekend off, they go grab their fish and tackle and their tent, and go away for the weekend. Others leave their computers at their student dorms and travel home for the weekend where they generally don't play. It's very easy to MISS such a "transfer weekend". I think that once the new hardware is in place, and everyone has returned from their Thanksgiving holiday travel (in the US at least), they should set aside at least a full WEEK of transfers to give everyone a chance to move around. I say after the Thanksgiving holiday, because the hardware upgrades are scheduled to be completed before then, and it will also give Meneldorians a chance to realize they may want to move servers.

One thing I do disagree with slightly though: Players did have a big role in creating this situation. First off, if players didn't leave, we didn't need transfers. Second, it was players that somehow found a way to abuse/exploit the transfer system which caused Turbine to change their stance on free transfers after the servers have all had a chance to move.... So it's not ALL turbine.

Last but not least, the message from Turbine couldn't be more clearer when it comes to transferring to Brandywine: If that is where you want to go..... STAY PUT on a closing server until Brandywine opens up, as that will guarantee you free transfers.

[Amrundir]

Said character was logged in last - in March 2015.

How do you know? There's no year visible in the friend list ingame. Or did I miss something?

Just see what happens if you transfer.

[maartena]

Sorry, but the "stay where you are for now" advice isn't very appealing either. As things have evolved we can't count on how the final situation will end up working. And the situation for the first lower population servers has been that what was already a less active environment quickly became a ghost town. One might just as well suggest that we quit playing entirely and come back in Jan. 2016.

One thing that might be handy is that IF you leave a level 100 on a closing server, that when Update 17 hits you will have all the quests to yourself, all the new crafting nodes to yourself, and you can move over to the new server of your choice *loaded* with crafting mats..... If I remembered that, I would have left one of my explorers (I have two) on Riddermark and do the same. - Now, on Arkenstone, I will have to fight for ore/wood nodes for the first 3 weeks.

(Seeing the positive in everything..... )

[maartena]

How do you know? There's no year visible in the friend list ingame. Or did I miss something?

Just see what happens if you transfer.

It is possible to sort by date..... it won't help THAT much, but you may see a list that looks sort of like this:

Friend8: 10/12
Friend3: 10/11
Friend1: 5/25
Friend2: 2/14
Friend7: 10/2
Friend9: 9/28

In this scenario you KNOW that friend 7 and friend 9 are *AT LEAST* inactive for one year, otherwise they would be right above "Friend1" who may have logged on May 25th.

[Stilgaard]

But Turbine has definitely changed their mind several times over the last 3 months when it comes to the transfers. About 3 months ago, it was still the plan to give remaining servers "a good solid 30 days" to transfer between each other to give everyone a chance to find the best home world. That all changed when the 48 hour transfer window happened and people were found to abuse the system and exploit it somehow. ....



What does worry me is these "free transfer weekends". First, I think a weekend is too short. There are many people who take the weekend off, they go grab their fish and tackle and their tent, and go away for the weekend. Others leave their computers at their student dorms and travel home for the weekend where they generally don't play. It's very easy to MISS such a "transfer weekend".

Fwiw.. but it would appear that these current "windows" of weekend transfers are to allow a small set of people who wish to move NOW (knowing full well that the new hardware is not in place and the possibility of hardware issues/Lag/queues are there) to do so (and continue to stress test the whole transfer system)

I believe that once the new hardware is in place the spigot of transfers will be wide open from all closing to all remaining servers, these current windows of transfers can't possibly be the only chance to move off of a closing world.


If they are, then they should be announcing it as such with sirens and klaxons.

[DKenny]

One thing that might be handy is that IF you leave a level 100 on a closing server, that when Update 17 hits you will have all the quests to yourself, all the new crafting nodes to yourself, and you can move over to the new server of your choice *loaded* with crafting mats..... If I remembered that, I would have left one of my explorers (I have two) on Riddermark and do the same. - Now, on Arkenstone, I will have to fight for ore/wood nodes for the first 3 weeks.

(Seeing the positive in everything..... )

True, one can always seek to benefit from the situation. I would just like to know what the final situation is so I can make some definite plans about how / when / where to move my chars. Given that transfers have already taken place, I think 3 free char transfers is too few at this point. Frankly, if the original plan had not allowed any free transfers for existing servers, I would have been fine with that. I understand there was some hope that people would transfer off of Brandywine (and I note that one has again been opened for free transfers). However, having stated that there would be free transfers for the other 4 of the 5, I think there is some obligation for those who started transfers based on that understanding. How about 1 free char transfer token per char transferred off of a closing server? I don't see that transferring off of a surviving server should necessarily generate a free token. However 1 per closing server char transfer would allow a player to 'change their mind' regarding the server they decided to transfer to. Unless you're currently only on one closing server, and only have 3 (or 2) char slots, 3 free tokens doesn't achieve that.

[Snabur]

I first started playing on Meneldor, and played on around 3-4 brazillian kins there. After the server started to get less active in PvP and PvE, in 2012 I went to Vilya and in the end of 2012 to Landroval.
Now I discovered everyone I talked that still plays on Meneldor from my previous kins there, are together in a big kin transfering to Gladden. I was hopeful to transfer with them like Turbine promissed, but now...only 3 tokens per account? I have 10 freeps at cap and 6 creeps above r7. No way I'm going to pay for the rest, the way is to remain in Landroval.
Happly I didnt transfer in the 'testing' phase, where Turbine betrayed everyone who transfered at that time, because if they have more than 3 chars, they'll be stuck.
Bad bad move.

[LegOverLass]

Sorry, I asked in this thread a long time ago about being able to move my characters if I did not like the initial server I chose.

The answer I received was there would be a period of probably a month that I could move freely. So if they have decided not to do this why should I believe anything else that is said here? If I had known this I never would have moved my toons the way I did. Absolutely gutted to be honest. This whole entire business is just terrible. I mean having to keep reading this thread is in itself is terrible customer service.

I was looking forward to moving my other toons from Nimrodel today but I am unsure what to do now.

Three tokens are not enough, I have many toons. I cannot plan around weekends that may or may not happen. Absolute **** that is. I did not create this issue but now I will have to pay to fix it? I cannot think of any other business that say to their customers, yeah that might happen or it might not. What happens if you're server is not over populated but you still want off it? With 14 toons that is rather expensive. Terrible. Liars, that what I call it.

[Wirbel]

Has it been made clear whether each transfer token is good for a move or for a character? Is it possible to use one token to move all characters on a world with the move everything option (one move)?

[StinkyGreene]

Sorry, I asked in this thread a long time ago about being able to move my characters if I did not like the initial server I chose.

The answer I received was there would be a period of probably a month that I could move freely.

Yeah, that initial "free to move off the [transferred-to] server if you aren't happy" position changed pretty rapidly. I have yet to move any of my characters until this all gets worked out.

[peachykins]

One thing I do disagree with slightly though: Players did have a big role in creating this situation. First off, if players didn't leave, we didn't need transfers.

So players then should have stayed playing & paying even if they were unhappy so server merges would not have happen. LMAO

No this is on Turbine. People left because they got fed up with Turbine's BS.

You cannot expect players to stay if there unhappy.

[kickman77]

I have to agree with this post.

Players were led to believe that they would have a chance to transfer all of their characters off a remaining world if the environment on that server was not what they expected.

Why do I feel that Turbine's money people are getting in the way of good and honest customer relations?

Players did not create this situation. Turbine created the situation. Players should not be worse off.

I agree as well. The pre-transfer announcements were pretty clear on what was intended. Plans were made on that basis. Upon initial opening of transfers, US transfers were closed almost immediately. The following week there was a 48 hour 'test' opening of transfers. The exploiters exploited, and benefited from their exploits, as they always seem to. As a sincere player I tried to help with the testing, transferring only a couple low level chars created expressly for the purpose of, well, testing. It was assumed, at that point, that after any problems were identified and addressed, transfers would be opened again. Then we were told such transfers would be delayed until after the closing servers transferred. Now we're told we only get 3 free char transfers (plus unspecified other opportunities, which we can't count on and might not be around to use).

This situation was created by first, Turbine closing servers and second by announcing how transfers would proceed and then radically changing it. Having characters on multiple servers, in multiple kins etc. created enough of a planning challenge without the process being changed as it has been.

Sorry, but the "stay where you are for now" advice isn't very appealing either. As things have evolved we can't count on how the final situation will end up working. And the situation for the first lower population servers has been that what was already a less active environment quickly became a ghost town. One might just as well suggest that we quit playing entirely and come back in Jan. 2016.

I first started playing on Meneldor, and played on around 3-4 brazillian kins there. After the server started to get less active in PvP and PvE, in 2012 I went to Vilya and in the end of 2012 to Landroval.
Now I discovered everyone I talked that still plays on Meneldor from my previous kins there, are together in a big kin transfering to Gladden. I was hopeful to transfer with them like Turbine promissed, but now...only 3 tokens per account? I have 10 freeps at cap and 6 creeps above r7. No way I'm going to pay for the rest, the way is to remain in Landroval.
Happly I didnt transfer in the 'testing' phase, where Turbine betrayed everyone who transfered at that time, because if they have more than 3 chars, they'll be stuck.
Bad bad move.

Sorry, I asked in this thread a long time ago about being able to move my characters if I did not like the initial server I chose.

The answer I received was there would be a period of probably a month that I could move freely. So if they have decided not to do this why should I believe anything else that is said here? If I had known this I never would have moved my toons the way I did. Absolutely gutted to be honest. This whole entire business is just terrible. I mean having to keep reading this thread is in itself is terrible customer service.

I was looking forward to moving my other toons from Nimrodel today but I am unsure what to do now.

Three tokens are not enough, I have many toons. I cannot plan around weekends that may or may not happen. Absolute **** that is. I did not create this issue but now I will have to pay to fix it? I cannot think of any other business that say to their customers, yeah that might happen or it might not. What happens if you're server is not over populated but you still want off it? With 14 toons that is rather expensive. Terrible. Liars, that what I call it.

ALL OF THIS... I am seriously not suprised. Turbine if this is the case and you have found a way to monetinze FREE transfers than it would be the most low class thing I have ever seen any gaming company do. Sorry to call a spade a spade but I knew when this began and info begab changing that simething like this would come out.

So please Turbine, tell me and these other posters we are wring and that those 3 tokens are account wide.. If not, than this may be the last starw for me and I will sadly never see Mordor because as I said earlier this comes across as low

[Galadhloth]

I would agree that one transfer token per character would seem to be a more reasonable choice.

Most people, I would think, wouldn't have the need to shuffle characters all over the place for a full month; however, I would guess that a very large proportion of the active player base would have more than three characters.

Personally speaking, I have two lowbies who I would like to move from Laurelin to Belegaer, and if we only have three tokens, I would not waste them on level 13 and level 10 characters who I don't play very often. It's not a huge problem and I can certainly wait for a "free transfer weekend" if they come, but I would prefer to have the ability to arrange all of my characters (alts as well as mains) according to my preference before all of the consolidations end, so the transition process isn't dragged out longer than necessary.

[maartena]

So players then should have stayed playing & paying even if they were unhappy so server merges would not have happen. LMAO

No this is on Turbine. People left because they got fed up with Turbine's BS.

You cannot expect players to stay if there unhappy.

I don't disagree here. But that doesn't mean that due to players actions, other actions are required. It may be a snowball effect if you look back in history long enough (e.g. did they really have to open up new servers in 2010 when the game went F2P, etc, etc....), but action/reaction aside, the players did have an influence in the outcome of all of this. I also don't know what this abuse/exploit was that players were abusing during the 48 hours, but it seems that Turbine reversed course on just about everything after those two days.

[ShireDweller]

One thing I do disagree with slightly though: Players did have a big role in creating this situation. First off, if players didn't leave, we didn't need transfers. .... So it's not ALL turbine.

You have got to be kidding me.

As far as I'm concerned, it *is* all on Turbine.

[Vyvyanne]

I will state this again. There WILL be free transfer opportunities for players on the remaining worlds post consolidations once players have a chance to evaluate communities. My stance on that has never changed. However due to technical limitations we can not do that via one token for every character, nor can we do one account wide token.

"Weekends" was a bad term to use. Lets say Free transfer "events" which will be determined when we set them up post consolidations they could be a week or a month, depending on what is appropriate and will be communicated via emails, forums and game announcements. If you don't want to wait for one of these windows to open to leave a world you are unhappy with, we will be providing the 3 tokens to move your primary characters to a place you would rather be in the meantime.

Our first priority however is getting the worlds onto the new hardware and consolidated down to the remaining 10. It is a great disruption for the entire community and we are all looking forward to being on the other side. Once there we will be better able to survey the state of the worlds and then decide the next reasonable time and set of worlds to open for free transfers.

[kickman77]

I will state this again. There WILL be free transfer opportunities for players on the remaining worlds post consolidations once players have a chance to evaluate communities. My stance on that has never changed. However due to technical limitations we can not do that via one token for every character, nor can we do one account wide token.

"Weekends" was a bad term to use. Lets say Free transfer "events" which will be determined when we set them up post consolidations they could be a week or a month, depending on what is appropriate and will be communicated via emails, forums and game announcements. If you don't want to wait for one of these windows to open to leave a world you are unhappy with, we will be providing the 3 tokens to move your primary characters to a place you would rather be in the meantime.

Our first priority however is getting the worlds onto the new hardware and consolidated down to the remaining 10. It is a great disruption for the entire community and we are all looking forward to being on the other side. Once there we will be better able to survey the state of the worlds and then decide the next reasonable time and set of worlds to open for free transfers.

Thank you for the clarification and my worries have been relieved. I had just worried that my server I am looking to go to, if not welcoming or overcrowded . whatever reason I would get at least a second chance. So now that I see I will be getting that, I thank you.

[Snabur]

ALL OF THIS... I am seriously not suprised. Turbine if this is the case and you have found a way to monetinze FREE transfers than it would be the most low class thing I have ever seen any gaming company do. Sorry to call a spade a spade but I knew when this began and info begab changing that simething like this would come out.

Yeah, what they did is hard t believe. I share this opinion too, and it's because of that, I'm done paying anymore money, been paying this game for 2 accounts (mine and my gf one) since 2011. Not spending anymore money into this, I guess that, bugs, mistakes, taking the game into strange directions (like the lack of endgame, I mean, maybe the ones who complain are really the minority, dunno) it's all aceptable, changes happens, Ubisoft release lots of bugs in AWESOME games, but you can generally take a deep breath and keep on playing. Now, when the company start to lie without any respect, and I'm not talking about liying about some update or pvp map, it don't break the game, I'm talking about the most delicated thing an MMO can go into : Servers merge. If they keep their word on a thing like this, I'm not giving them any money. Want to monetize? Don't lie, instead open public contests for new cosmetics and steeds and sell on store, ANY game make TONS of profit with this.

So please Turbine, tell me and these other posters we are wring and that those 3 tokens are account wide.. If not, than this may be the last starw for me and I will sadly never see Mordor because as I said earlier this comes across as low

Nah, Vivvyanne already stated it's 3 tokens per account. Yes, they're THAT low now.

[Galadhloth]

Thank you for the clarification and my worries have been relieved. I had just worried that my server I am looking to go to, if not welcoming or overcrowded . whatever reason I would get at least a second chance. So now that I see I will be getting that, I thank you.

I agree. Thanks for the clarification!!

[ShireDweller]

I will state this again. There WILL be free transfer opportunities for players on the remaining worlds post consolidations once players have a chance to evaluate communities. My stance on that has never changed. However due to technical limitations we can not do that via one token for every character, nor can we do one account wide token.

"Weekends" was a bad term to use. Lets say Free transfer "events" which will be determined when we set them up post consolidations they could be a week or a month, depending on what is appropriate and will be communicated via emails, forums and game announcements. If you don't want to wait for one of these windows to open to leave a world you are unhappy with, we will be providing the 3 tokens to move your primary characters to a place you would rather be in the meantime.

Our first priority however is getting the worlds onto the new hardware and consolidated down to the remaining 10. It is a great disruption for the entire community and we are all looking forward to being on the other side. Once there we will be better able to survey the state of the worlds and then decide the next reasonable time and set of worlds to open for free transfers.

Thanks, Vyvyanne.

Please, please seriously consider creating a read-only stickied thread where you can post the latest info on the transfer effort and answer questions you have seen come up on the forums. We need a place were people can read YOUR words, unfiltered by those who want to be seen as helpful but who can't help but add in their own interpretations to your words.

After all the info you posted here yesterday, things have changed a lot since your first letters about the transfers. A central thread with blue-name only info, read-only, kept up to date, would help everyone immensely.

[maartena]

I would agree that one transfer token per character would seem to be a more reasonable choice.

I think the bigger problem here is that the token system as it has been implemented now (actually since 2014) is not programmed to be "per character". You purchase tokens from a website when you are logged on to your account. The 3 tokens you get, you can use for the same character, three times, moving to different servers, or for 3 different characters, etc.... In other words, at this moment it isn't possible to "bind" a transfer token to ONE character.

And getting that programmed might be a technical challenge that they aren't prepared for at the moment, and certainly won't be able to fix before the transfers are needed. So they probably didn't have a choice, and opted for the regular, already existing account tokens.

I think this won't actually be a huge issue with the "free transfer weekends", but Vyvyanne probably needs to give us a little more clarification how this is all going to work, and whether the "solid 30 days to give everyone an opportunity to find their home" is completely out of the window.

[maartena]

I will state this again. There WILL be free transfer opportunities for players on the remaining worlds post consolidations once players have a chance to evaluate communities. My stance on that has never changed. However due to technical limitations we can not do that via one token for every character, nor can we do one account wide token.

"Weekends" was a bad term to use. Lets say Free transfer "events" which will be determined when we set them up post consolidations they could be a week or a month, depending on what is appropriate and will be communicated via emails, forums and game announcements. If you don't want to wait for one of these windows to open to leave a world you are unhappy with, we will be providing the 3 tokens to move your primary characters to a place you would rather be in the meantime.

Our first priority however is getting the worlds onto the new hardware and consolidated down to the remaining 10. It is a great disruption for the entire community and we are all looking forward to being on the other side. Once there we will be better able to survey the state of the worlds and then decide the next reasonable time and set of worlds to open for free transfers.

Thank you for the update! Obviously I posted my post above this one before I read this

[maartena]

Thanks, Vyvyanne.

Please, please seriously consider creating a read-only stickied thread where you can post the latest info on the transfer effort and answer questions you have seen come up on the forums. We need a place were people can read YOUR words, unfiltered by those who want to be seen as helpful but who can't help but add in their own interpretations to your words.

After all the info you posted here yesterday, things have changed a lot since your first letters about the transfers. A central thread with blue-name only info, read-only, kept up to date, would help everyone immensely.

I agree with the "sticky" post, OR perhaps an updated post on the website that details everything that has changed. The previous posts still mention the October 1st date for instance, and that of course has completely changed.