Question on character renames on transferred player...will any sort of prioritization be used to determine which character requires a rename? Or is the mere existence of a name on a server sufficient to force a rename for the incoming character?

 

Example: I have Luke, of the Skywalker legacy on server A, which is a source server. I've been playing him since Early Access, have him at level 50, etc. On server B, the designated destination server, there is also already a character named Luke, but the person who made him bought the game, played their free month, and left, never having subscribed...does he get to keep the name just because he was on the server first, or do I, as a loyal customer, get to keep the name of a character I've played, and he gets flagged for a rename if he ever comes back to the game?

 

I appreciate your concerns, but here's another way to view the issue of character name priority.

 

Many people bought the game at launch, selected their character names, but then found they were dissatisfied with the state of the game, and temporarily quit with the intention of re-subbing later when the game has matured. I've done this myself in at least two MMOs. If I had the foresight to buy the game on Day 1 in order to reserve my character names (and, I was willing to pay the premium price for pre-ordering or buying the game on Day 1), why should some player transferring from another server be able to steal my character names? That would make me mad enough NOT to resubscribe to the game.

 

Or what about active duty military personnel? My step-son bought the game, reserved his character names, and was then sent to Afghanistan. He has every intention of playing when he gets back. When he comes back at the end of the year and subscribes, is it really fair that some guy who recently transferred to his server was able to take his character names?

When do we get to pick where we want to transfer, Allison?

 

How much will it inevitably cost?

Edited June 6, 2012 by bawker

Since you deleted some of my old posts for no *********** good reason, here was the jist of my arguments:

 

Before server transfers:

200 dead servers.

2 semi-full servers.

 

After server transfers:

180 completely dead servers.

20 mostly dead servers.

2 semi-full servers.

 

Just let us transfer to whatever *********** server we want to, for free, and yes there will be much QQ-ing about queue times to actually get into those severs, but that kind of QQ-ing is GOOD QQ-ing. Then I will stop my whining about cross-server functionality (sorry I lied earlier about never talking about cross-server again but that post got deleted so whatever).

 

You might wanna calm down a little before throwing out accusations with no evidence. If they let you transfer to whatever you want, that server is going to have too high of a pop and you'll have to wait half an hour just to log in. You don't want that.

I feel that the free transfer server should be further extended at a latter date to give players the opportunity to get all their characters on one server without having to pay a fee up to at least 3 characters to offset not only the disproportion of time investment loss, but also for new features that require characters from both factions such as the HK companion.

So that does propose some questions. How about a set time frame to allow transfers? One that can be announced ahead of time, providing us players with the opportunity to plan out the transfer per guild or even singular players.

 

Another interest of mine is faction balance. Is population as a whole being considered with the specific server transfer? Or will faction ratios be included. Hooking up two servers, even if the origin server is dieing, that are prominently empire will only create an ever wider gap between empire and republic on the destination server. In my first guild the server we started on was dieing and was faction imbalanced in favor of empire (we were republic) so we decided to change servers, one of our biggest concerns was finding a server that offered the best faction balance. Easily that same concern applies with character transfers.

Edited June 6, 2012 by Luceon

This may have already been asked but I know if you are on a PVE server you can only move to another PVE server, the same goes for PVP servers.

 

...But what about RP-PV_ ?

 

...And what about (if you are on the US for example) East and West?

 

I only ask because I am on Ven Zallow, a RP-PVP East server. There is only 1 other RP-PVP East server... Jung Ma. Can I assume that is my destination?

 

Jung Ma is on the top 20 and Ven Zallow isn't anywhere near that.

I can't help but feel like it was an extremely myopic decision to remove players' choice from the matter; it negates their ability to pair up with friends who might be on a different server from the one chosen by the team, as well as ruins whatever plans they may have had to, say, join a different guild on another server.

 

I can understand being afraid of a run on the big-name servers, but this whole process seems incredibly forced and constrictive.

 

I don't like the fact that the decision is soley in their hands, I don't trust them at this point because so much that can go wrong with this game has gone wrong. I am concerned about being worse off then I was before regardless of whether I stay or move because I have to rely on other people.

What happens if my origin server has a higher legacy level, but my destination server has more stuff unlocked? Obviously the unlocks mean more to me than the levels...especially the ones I had to pay a ton of credits for...

I have a question:

 

I am on a RP-PVP server. there are only two RP-PVP servers on the East Coast. Does this mean that Ven Zallow will just fill into Jung Ma?

 

In other words, are people on RP-PVP only going to be able to fill the other RP-PVP server?

The metrics have been there to study for a while . . .since we have no choice of where we're going to go, BioWare obviously has at least some idea of what pairs are where.

 

Incredibly gimped "solution" for something that the forums have been on fire for months for . . .

Edited June 6, 2012 by Moitteva
removed quoted post that was previously removed as OT

So, source servers are doomed... ROLL!

A lot of people finally caved in and rerolled on populated servers after months of dwindling server population. For example, I rerolled onto The Fatman with the expectation that someday I'd be able to move my other characters there.

 

So why not, for those people who move from an origin server, give them the option to also move from other servers they currently play on?

 

Example:

I rolled two characters on Server A and leveled them up to 50. Over time, and due to luck of the draw, Server A has become a very low-population server.

 

I rerolled on Server B, because I enjoy playing in flashpoints and grouping up for heroics, etc.

 

Now Sever A is eligible to transfer to Server C. If I choose to avail myself of that option, can there be a checkbox or a tick mark to allow me to ALSO transfer my characters from Server B to Server C?

 

If not, I really hope the costs for bringing my characters together on a single server is not going to be high, or that they will be a far way off into the future. I just want to play and have fun, and since the technology is now in place to allow this, it's increasingly frustrating that I'm potentially going to have to pay lots of money or wait for months longer before I can have my characters together again.

Right now, we're just talking about the free character transfers - like it mentions in the blog, more options may become available in the future, but that's all we've mentioned as of now.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

 

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

 

If it means I can consolidate my characters I will pay 25 dollars per.

 

I mean, I already have a legacy on my new server.

Ahh, good on ya! Now all the QQers can move on to something else!

 

You wish.

You might wanna calm down a little before throwing out accusations with no evidence. If they let you transfer to whatever you want, that server is going to have too high of a pop and you'll have to wait half an hour just to log in. You don't want that.

 

As I said in my post, I don't mind waiting a half hour as long as I know that server has my characters that I've put so much time into and I can get a decent Warzone/Flashpoint queue (and I'll just play Diablo while I wait). By trying to force us to go to some random server, they are just going to eventually run into the same problem.

Please I do hope that the people on the same server will be transferred to the same condensed server and not potentially get split up. My husband and I play together and will be utterly upset if our characters get shut off from one another. Please be more specific on the details of these re-populations! I don't want to miss something I need to do and be screwed.

Right now, we're just talking about the free character transfers - like it mentions in the blog, more options may become available in the future, but that's all we've said as of now.

 

Very well.

 

I'll wait a few more months and let my Firaxan Shark characters collect dust . . .hopefully it won't cost too much, but at least you've more or less confirmed what I figured.

 

I guess I'll see if it's worth the price once it's announced.

 

Thanks for your response . . .I can't say I'm overjoyed, but I suppose we're at least on our way with getting people to the servers they want to end up on.

For the love of god if i can't get off the RP server I'm on and onto a regular PVE server I'll scream. Friends that no longer play or plan to play got us onto the RP server and now I feel stuck...no one ever wants to do anything content wise.

 

I really hope they DO give us some options to change server types otherwise this is complete ******** and when my time is up in July I'm out. I've already stopped logging in to my characters for the past 3 weeks.

We all need a plan on where to go or servers will be just as bad as they are now.

 

From what the dev has posted i think that they are going to let us transfer off any server and go to any light server i think.

Call it server "mergers", or server "consolidations", but don't call it transfers unless you actually have the ability to pick and choose which server a particular toon can move from and to.

 

And let me guess, un-subbed players must re-sub in order to take part in this "free" "transfer", right?

 

Like the rest of this game, this "transfer" is on rails...

 

If I wanted to be continually bombarded with the illusion of choice, I'd spend my free time in politics.

We all need a plan on where to go or servers will be just as bad as they are now.

 

From what the dev has posted i think that they are going to let us transfer off any server and go to any light server i think.

 

That would be a terrible bad idea they're likely to have light servers moving to standard servers.

Or what about active duty military personnel? My step-son bought the game, reserved his character names, and was then sent to Afghanistan. He has every intention of playing when he gets back. When he comes back at the end of the year and subscribes, is it really fair that some guy who recently transferred to his server was able to take his character names?

 

I don't know...for every one active duty military personnel who did this, there are going to be 30 guys who bought the game early, hated it, and will never, ever come back to it. I understand it kind of sucks for the one guy out of 30 who does want to come back, but at the same time, I'd rather see name priority go to somebody who is actively using a name and has been using it for a period of time.

 

If your step-son created a character on December 15 and played for a month and somebody else created a character on January 15, but has been actively logging in with that character every day since and is level 50 with legacy level 25, I'm going to say that person deserves to have it a little more than your step-son (who for all we know may have decided he's no longer interested by the time he gets back). Maybe that sounds a little crappy.

Edited June 6, 2012 by thewatcheruatu