Lets face it, the majority of us are playing on servers that are dead. One of the reasons I can see for Bioware not merging servers is because inactive people suddenly become active during new patches or events. I myself noticed over 200 people on Tatooine during the first day of the Rakghoul Plague event. Nevertheless, this should not keep Bioware from merging servers. Even with cross realm Warzones coming (if they ever do), playing on a dead server where world PvP is dead, isn't any fun.

I believe that the majority of the servers should be merged, while a few low pop servers are kept up. Once this occurs transfers should be free for the first several months, so that if their merged servers experience a queue, or they don't want to deal with the population, they can move to one of the lower population servers.

This unfortunately will result in having almost ghost-town servers, but at the same time it's not that much further off from where we are now.

Thoughts? Trolls? Comments? I'll take them all.

Lets face it, the majority of us are playing on servers that are dead. One of the reasons I can see for Bioware not merging servers is because inactive people suddenly become active during new patches or events. I myself noticed over 200 people on Tatooine during the first day of the Rakghoul Plague event. Nevertheless, this should not keep Bioware from merging servers. Even with cross realm Warzones coming (if they ever do), playing on a dead server where world PvP is dead, isn't any fun.

 

I believe that the majority of the servers should be merged, while a few low pop servers are kept up. Once this occurs transfers should be free for the first several months, so that if their merged servers experience a queue, or they don't want to deal with the population, they can move to one of the lower population servers.

 

This unfortunately will result in having almost ghost-town servers, but at the same time it's not that much further off from where we are now.

 

Thoughts? Trolls? Comments? I'll take them all.

If they charge for server transfers, I will unsub immediately.

If they charge for server transfers, I will unsub immediately.

Fact; Free transfers are limited. They will be charging for server transfers. Go ahead and unsub now.

I don't think many people will disagree with you.

That being said, my guess is that character transfers and only character transfers will be offered initially (most likely for free) because the mechanics of server merges are not part of the code base right now. When you talk about server merges there is a whole list of things that will need to be addressed to prepare for that data transfer, which I personally believe, they are not even close to being ready for.

I saw in another thread about transferring guilds....which again is headache due to all of the guild mechanics (the bank being the most obvious).

In the short term, small guilds and non-guilded players will benefit the most because they are the most portable.

Fact; Free transfers are limited. They will be charging for server transfers. Go ahead and unsub now.

Fact: You're basing this on WoW.

Tera has roughly the same amount of subscribers as SWTOR right now, and half the servers. Guess what? Server transfers are free during first couple of months with the game.

Even though there are already a few large threads for this topic, and as such, the Mods are likely to close this thread and redirect you to one of them... this was my reply in another thread with a similar topic.

Paid Xfers WILL be around, but they are having targeted free transfers first.

My hopes are that it goes something like this...

<Speculation>

They select (randomly or based on current pop etc...) say 5-10 servers to transfer TO, and basically say "OK... anyone from this other list of servers can transfer to any of these." The FROM set in this scenario would likely include Fatman, Covenant and the other heavy server(s) as well as the servers with the lowest populations. The TO servers would be the current Standard (if there are any) populated servers and maybe 1 to 5 Light servers.

 

After the targeted free transfers, anyone willing to plop down $20 or whatever SHOULD be able to choose where they go (be it Fatman or any other). Then, after things had settled down a bit, they would shunt inactive characters / accounts to other servers and shut down several, or merge the remaining servers etc...

</Speculation>

Fact: You're basing this on WoW.

 

Tera has roughly the same amount of subscribers as SWTOR right now, and half the servers. Guess what? Server transfers are free during first couple of months with the game.

Um... No... no he isn't...

Dallas Dickinson (Senior Producer, Live Services): We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer. First we’ll have some targeted free transfers from/to specific servers, but that will be followed with a broader system where you can either take advantage of free promotional transfers to specific servers or paid transfers to the server of your choice. We know everyone has more questions about character transfer, and we’ll reveal more details closer to the launch date.

This whole friggin game should be free. Not just the server transfers.

I payed €100 euro's on the release date of this game, just to end up waiting from 6pm to 9pm on a warzone and rage quiting for not getting a warzone for a whole day...

Seriously this game is total crap for a hardcore pvper... I'll prolly come back to check 1.3 out since I allready invested money and time in this game but, if 1.3 disapoints me then I guess it will be time to move on.

Sorry for whining. After waiting for 3 hours(not exagerating) and not getting a warzone I just had to let this off my chest. Even tho no one cares.

Well cya in 1.3(for awhile atleast)

It should certainly be free in my opinion. Copy Rifts transfer process, a free transfer once every 7 days to select servers (this always fluctuated to deal with population balance, but you could transfer to higher populated servers. Wasn't just a low only server transfer thing).

My server in December/Earlier Jan had close to a 2 hour wait to log in. Nowadays I'm lucky to see 50 people on fleet during prime times, and I know there are plenty servers worse off then mine. Regardless though, why should we have to pay to play with a decent community of people all just because you wanted to ensure you had the "smoothest launch" ever. Props to the smooth launch part, but months later we are seeing the affects. Yes, most of the servers are the same population. They are all just dead though. Well 80% + of them are.

This is all wishful thinking. We are dealing with EA here. I've accepted for months now that if I wish to transfer I will have to pay a cost to move my character just because that is a very typical EA thing to do.

Edit - missed the quote about how transfer will work. I guess it depends on how long the process will remain free and what servers are available to transfer too. Glad it is free initially though.

Fact: You're basing this on WoW.

No, he's not. It has been explicitly announced that limited character transfers will be free, followed shortly by a premium, unrestricted service.

Edit: Lupie beat me to it, and provided a quote. /bowout

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackcules

If they charge for server transfers, I will unsub immediately.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kourage

Fact; Free transfers are limited. They will be charging for server transfers. Go ahead and unsub now.

Fact: You're basing this on WoW.

 

Tera has roughly the same amount of subscribers as SWTOR right now, and half the servers. Guess what? Server transfers are free during first couple of months with the game.

No I'm basing this on comments from the developers, which you seem to have no knowledge of. Allow me to educate you

Dallas Dickinson (Senior Producer, Live Services): We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer. First we’ll have some targeted free transfers from/to specific servers, but that will be followed with a broader system where you can either take advantage of free promotional transfers to specific servers or paid transfers to the server of your choice. We know everyone has more questions about character transfer, and we’ll reveal more details closer to the launch date.

Rift has the best transfer structure out of any game. It's built right into the character select screen, and supports guilds and everything. It's a shame that the game design for Rift is so bland, because they have a stellar game otherwise.

Yes they do. But Rift has a small sub base and not that many servers. 16? At some point this could happen to TOR and server transfers will be free to where ever like Rift.

They will be free...the ones you can select to transfer to that is.

yea it would be nice of them if they said you can transfer from any server to these selected servers.

for free of ccourse

yea it would be nice of them if they said you can transfer from any server to these selected servers.

I think you will be. It is only if you want to go from a low pop one to a high pop one you will have to pay for is my guess. Atleast this is how it has happened in WoW.

The fatman is heavily populated, and doesn't need more people on it. If you want a free transfer to a server, everyone should go roll on Mind Trick. That way you can be on a newly populated server that gets heavy, and still take advantage of the free promotion:d_cool:

The Fatman is heavily populated because of the large number of rerolls. Those people want to move their other character to The Fatman and not have to pay to do so. Rerolling or canceling is the only choice they were offered.

What he said:

Dallas Dickinson (Senior Producer, Live Services): We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer. First we’ll have some targeted free transfers from/to specific servers, but that will be followed with a broader system where you can either take advantage of free promotional transfers to specific servers or paid transfers to the server of your choice. We know everyone has more questions about character transfer, and we’ll reveal more details closer to the launch date.

What I hear: "Blah blah blah blah... we are planning to soak subscribers for more money by making them pay to be on a decent population server."