"Merges won't work"? Um, hello, these server-transfers-on-rails are pretty much server merges except for the fact that they're optional. They're optional server merges. We don't have a choice where to go, except to stay put. Worse, they're even less organized than a merge, because we have to do all of the footwork ourselves for guilds, mail, guild bank, etc.

 

 

 

Ditto. Activity across servers in general is at an all time low, and 1.3 isn't promising at all since it doesn't really add much. All of the hopes and dreams some of us had for TOR have sort of vanished in a puff of smoke. The 1.2 update was very promising, a move in the right direction (except maybe for artwork). But after that new content is lacking. So server activity drops as people get bored or run out of interesting things to do. It's always a problem with an amusement-park style MMO. They can't create content fast enough, and they already set the content creation bar high with voiced-over cut-scenes and dialog.

Yes, "server-transfer-on-rails" is much better than a server merge because it's entirely optional. What would you do if you had 8 characters on 2 separate servers that ended up being merged together? You can't have 16 toons on 1 server. So... how would that work?

Two main questions (with subsets of related questions) that I have seen asked but have been only answered vaguely:

1: It was asked how much time is going to be given for the free transfer for accounts/characters on a given server to move to another server; I've seen "plenty" and "we will give ample notice before we stop" kind of answers. How much time actually will be given? Months? Weeks?

Some guild members who would want to transfer with their guildmates may have an extended abscence from the game due to RL issues. How much time do they have?

I would suggest to the Dev's that once you make a decision to call a server a "destination" or "origin" server that you allow that transfer, for free, for the life of the game or until one or both of the servers no longer exist.

2: Are accounts/characters whom are eligible for a free server transfer limited to their choices as far as how many of the charaters on a given server can transfer? Is it a "All or None" choice?

Can I move just 1 or 2 characters during a free transfer and then move others at a later time (if I choose)? Or, do I only have the choice to move every single character off of a given server or none at all?

Will "Paid" transfers work the same way? Will I have to pay a "per Character" fee or will I be able to move all characters from a given server to another given server for a set price?

"Merges won't work"? Um, hello, these server-transfers-on-rails are pretty much server merges except for the fact that they're optional. They're optional server merges. We don't have a choice where to go, except to stay put. Worse, they're even less organized than a merge, because we have to do all of the footwork ourselves for guilds, mail, guild bank, etc.

 

 

 

Ditto. Activity across servers in general is at an all time low, and 1.3 isn't promising at all since it doesn't really add much. All of the hopes and dreams some of us had for TOR have sort of vanished in a puff of smoke. The 1.2 update was very promising, a move in the right direction (except maybe for artwork). But after that new content is lacking. So server activity drops as people get bored or run out of interesting things to do. It's always a problem with an amusement-park style MMO. They can't create content fast enough, and they already set the content creation bar high with voiced-over cut-scenes and dialog.

On the contrary, we would've been happy to farm the content with alts - The problem being our server is so dead that 1 person being a no-show could screw an 8man raid from even happening. The new raid was added and we hadn't even started hardmodes in the old raids. Much less our hopes of one day doing 16mans. Like any mmo players would come and go. The ones that did stick around were people that probably wouldn't have had they not found a guild, and even first time mmo'ers who had a blast raiding when we got there. It was just a horribly slow process, because the recruiting potential as far back as January (1 month in) was pretty much non existant. I was lucky to pull in 1-2 people a week and even luckier that a 10 of them stayed active.

I think it's a marketing ploy that's backfiring on them. "Free Server Transfers" sounds much better than "Server Mergers". After all, "server mergers", or even with the pre-fix "optional", is commonly seen as marking the downfall of an MMO, so they probably wanted to avoid that term.

 

So now we have server-transfers-on-rails. And a lot of people are annoyed over it, though how many or what percentage of the community is completely unknown.

Yes, very adequately worded.

This is a server merge in sheep's clothing. How do you know?

You have no choice of your destination

Hi Rogoo,

 

As mentioned in the blog post, we will be maintaining server types. So it will be RP-PvP to RP-PvP.

Thanks for screwing your dedicated part of the community.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=475348

TL;DR the whole 184pg thread but -

Quote: Originally Posted by JovethGonzalez

There will be a full FAQ published on Tuesday to answer most of your questions, but I wanted to go ahead and answer these two.

 

1. Due to a variety of factors (including the naming and re-naming process after transferring characters), this was deemed to be the most efficient method in assuring that Guilds retain their Guild Banks on the new server.

 

2. Yes, you will have to:

Remove all items & credits from the Guild Bank.

Disband the Guild.

Transfer to the new server and reform the Guild.

Contact Customer Service to re-establish the Guild Bank and Guild Bank tabs.

 

Hopefully that answers your question.

So we disband our current guild, and then start the server transfer process for the GM and once they are on the destination server they contact CS? How is CS supposed to know what we had, if we disbanded it. Its going to take forever for them to have to investigate every single guild and what it had? As a GL on a dying server, i was looking forward to a smooth guild move. This whole thing looks like its better to just rot on an origin server. At least this way, *if* decent content brings anyone back in months or years, at least we still have a home together.

TL;DR the whole 184pg thread but -

 

 

 

So we disband our current guild, and then start the server transfer process for the GM and once they are on the destination server they contact CS? How is CS supposed to know what we had, if we disbanded it. Its going to take forever for them to have to investigate every single guild and what it had? As a GL on a dying server, i was looking forward to a smooth guild move. This whole thing looks like its better to just rot on an origin server. At least this way, *if* decent content brings anyone back in months or years, at least we still have a home together.

I agree, the guild transfers are a huge hassle. They should just allow 2 GM's, one on the origin server and one on the destination server

Yes, "server-transfer-on-rails" is much better than a server merge because it's entirely optional. What would you do if you had 8 characters on 2 separate servers that ended up being merged together? You can't have 16 toons on 1 server. So... how would that work?

There's nothing stopping Bioware from upping the count for existing accounts. But that's off-topic and besides the point. This server transfer is nothing more than an optional server mege. If people had 8 characters (or 5 or more) on each server, both the origin and destination, I wonder how they'd handle that. They'd probably tell you to delete characters until you have 8, lol. After all, Bioware has been oh-so-flexible with making us manually create new guilds during this "transfer".

TL;DR the whole 184pg thread but -

 

 

 

So we disband our current guild, and then start the server transfer process for the GM and once they are on the destination server they contact CS? How is CS supposed to know what we had, if we disbanded it. Its going to take forever for them to have to investigate every single guild and what it had? As a GL on a dying server, i was looking forward to a smooth guild move. This whole thing looks like its better to just rot on an origin server. At least this way, *if* decent content brings anyone back in months or years, at least we still have a home together.

You dont have to worry about the items in the guild bank, as all of that should be withdrawn prior to transferring. What he's referring to is how many tabs that guild bank had. That information will likely remain on the previous server in a log file somewhere that they can access

Thanks for screwing your dedicated part of the community.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=475348

Wait, you're an RPer who is upset that you are being directed to an RP server? Huh?

There's nothing stopping Bioware from upping the count for existing accounts. But that's off-topic and besides the point. This server transfer is nothing more than an optional server mege. If people had 8 characters (or 5 or more) on each server, both the origin and destination, I wonder how they'd handle that. They'd probably tell you to delete characters until you have 8, lol. After all, Bioware has been oh-so-flexible with making us manually create new guilds during this "transfer".

To back you up on that - It's not even an optional server merge. One of the goals of a server merge is TO CLOSE OUT THE SERVERS to deter players from joining the dead servers. This is optional, so inactive players will be left on these servers, the servers will remain OPEN, until BW decides to do a proper merger and close the server out.

That being said - the reason the servers have no population is likely largely in part because new players join servers with such pathetic populations they have nobody encouraging them to get to endgame.

This issue is not being addressed with xfers. Players will still come and go at the same rate they always do, and the problem being new players have a long list of low population (dead) servers to choose from, and some players select randomly or let the game decide for them. Wreckless stated "don't worry about that" but they won't be closing servers with players left on them. Deleting peoples charactors is taboo.

Defend your sinking ship but I'm jumping off at the first sign of a leak...however in this case I have poured my fair share of buckets off the edge for this one 6 months in. BW hasn't done much to restore my faith in them...and this move seems like desperation rather than solid thinking or research. It's like they've never played an mmo, or talked to anyone that has.

You dont have to worry about the items in the guild bank, as all of that should be withdrawn prior to transferring. What he's referring to is how many tabs that guild bank had. That information will likely remain on the previous server in a log file somewhere that they can access

Whats going to be nice is all the guilds that had guild tabs but now dont have enough members to get the guild tab after the transfers.

Sounds like u guys are just making this harder then it should been. Seems like mergers would been easier and less confusing.

Agreed!!!

If all of the players from 1 server are being pushed towards a single destination, now is that any different that merging the 2 servers and making it cut and dry?!

The only difference I can think of is that the inactive players from the origin server wont be moved and clog up the destination server. Therefore their names and Legacy's won't cause problems with duplicates.

There's nothing stopping Bioware from upping the count for existing accounts. But that's off-topic and besides the point. This server transfer is nothing more than an optional server mege. If people had 8 characters (or 5 or more) on each server, both the origin and destination, I wonder how they'd handle that. They'd probably tell you to delete characters until you have 8, lol. After all, Bioware has been oh-so-flexible with making us manually create new guilds during this "transfer".

With a server transfer you can choose which characters to move over immediately and which ones you'd like to leave on the dead server for a possible transfer later. With a server merge you would immediately have to delete multiple toons since you can't have 16 characters on 1 server. Merges don't work.

Can we stop whining for a minute? Let's give them time, as if other MMO's got perfected in a year...

Will you start first?

Defend your sinking ship but I'm jumping off at the first sign of a leak...however in this case I have poured my fair share of buckets off the edge for this one 6 months in. BW hasn't done much to restore my faith in them...and this move seems like desperation rather than solid thinking or research. It's like they've never played an mmo, or talked to anyone that has.

Ditto. I feel your pain as well. I really wanted for my gaming community (we play multiple games) to have TOR as their focus, but even all of us are abandoning this sinking ship. In fact, the one guy we had who was spear-heading his resolve in playing TOR with the few stragglers we had left, canceled his sub a few days ago as well.

With a server merge you would immediately have to delete multiple toons since you can't have 16 characters on 1 server. Merges don't work.

Did you read my post at all? If you have 8 characters (or 5+) on both your origin and destination server for thes transfers, you'd have to do the same thing if they don't up the 8-slots per server. Nothing is different there.

Wait, you're an RPer who is upset that you are being directed to an RP server? Huh?

The deal is that there is NO server for us to transfer. People playing on EU RP-PvP servers have nowhere to go.

With a server transfer you can choose which characters to move over immediately and which ones you'd like to leave on the dead server for a possible transfer later. With a server merge you would immediately have to delete multiple toons since you can't have 16 characters on 1 server. Merges don't work.

There's a simple solution to that..UP THE CHARACTOR LIMIT.

Im not married to my guild name, character names or my legacy name...get real. Die hard fan of your names stay where your at and see how your names keep you busy. lol.

Population is all anyone has cried about for months...now you wanty to cry when theyre gonna open transfers up? again....get real and be happy its happening AT ALL.

If you all need to cry ...go find a corner and sit in it.

With a server transfer you can choose which characters to move over immediately and which ones you'd like to leave on the dead server for a possible transfer later. With a server merge you would immediately have to delete multiple toons since you can't have 16 characters on 1 server. Merges don't work.

I get your point with this, but with so many servers that exist, what are the odds that you have re-rolls on the 1 destination server that will be chosen for you?

I sort of have to chuckle when I read posts defending Bioware by claiming that other MMOs needed a year or more to "perfect" themselves too.

First: there is no "perfect" MMO. You can't please everyone all the time. And even if you got close, there would always be something to improve upon.

Second: this is 2012. The MMO scene is ripe with competition. If an MMO developer/publisher can't get it right within 4 months, they see their subscriber base flee. In this market, if you plan to do some AAA title MMO, you need to get it right by open beta. If you're lacking somewhere, that oversight may never get addressed in time and you'll lose subscribers as they become invested in other, newer, shinier MMOs.

I think the old model of limited, developer-pushed content with level caps will follow this trend of hype, brief success, then failure. No one developer can hold a subscriber's interest without generating a lot of content to keep them entertained. The MMO revolutions of the future will be either user-content driven or have a sand-box, persistent world. The theme/amusement-park style MMO only holds gamers' attentions so long, with about the only exception being WoW.

Did you read my post at all? If you have 8 characters (or 5+) on both your origin and destination server for thes transfers, you'd have to do the same thing if they don't up the 8-slots per server. Nothing is different there.

Did you read mine? If you have anywhere near 16 characters combined on an origin/destination server you'd have to delete 8 immediately with a server merge. With a transfer you can choose to move some to a different server later. Transfers give you choice, merges do not.

Im not married to my guild name, character names or my legacy name...get real. Die hard fan of your names stay where your at and see how your names keep you busy. lol.

 

Population is all anyone has cried about for months...now you wanty to cry when theyre gonna open transfers up? again....get real and be happy its happening AT ALL.

 

If you all need to cry ...go find a corner and sit in it.

There's something to be said for doing it right the first time, and BW didn't. If you, or BW, thinks that providing a temporary solution doesn't even solve the issues that cause the need for these transfers is worth people investing their time or money into, good for you. Some of us don't want to buy into a ship with a patch in it's hull that's going to fall off and start leaking in 3 mo's. Be happy it's happening at all? At this current point I could piss on this game... but i can't help but remind BW of it's potential and how they're not utilizing it.

You can call it crying, but I see it as warning Bioware of the consequences of their actions, and how it could prove fruitless. As it is, I'm not subbed, I know many other players who aren't subbed for the very same reasons. Who probably would subscribe if BW thought further ahead than next month's subscription fees. Let my post be a prediction of what's likely to happen with this chosen course of action... and we'll see how happy you are in a few months, if you're not already on fatman or something similar.

Second: this is 2012. The MMO scene is ripe with competition. If an MMO developer/publisher can't get it right within 4 months, they see their subscriber base flee. In this market, if you plan to do some AAA title MMO, you need to get it right by open beta. If you're lacking somewhere, that oversight may never get addressed in time and you'll lose subscribers as they become invested in other, newer, shinier MMOs.

I think the old model of limited, developer-pushed content with level caps will follow this trend of hype, brief success, then failure. No one developer can hold a subscriber's interest without generating a lot of content to keep them entertained. The MMO revolutions of the future will be either user-content driven or have a sand-box, persistent world. The theme/amusement-park style MMO only holds gamers' attentions so long, with about the only exception being WoW.