It has been 10 months since "the initial phase of our Character Transfer Service".

 

The community expected paid transfers 9 months ago.

 

We have gotten NOTHING since then.

 

The silence is beyond old, it is ancient now. We need to know when this is happening. We need to know why it hasn't happened yet. We need SOMETHING. Bioware has been stringing us along on this for far too long, and I am out of patience. Even if you just gave us your excuse, at least we would know there is something happening with these.

 

I promise if you give a rough date estimate and aren't able to meet it exactly I will not throw a hissy fit.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=594503

 

The most highly viewed thread in the Cartel Suggestion forum.

considering they dont even have a character rename service, the most basic and simple of all services, its not a suprise you cant transfer characters. The common reason given is that they dont have the technology to do transfers since transfers require futuristic advanced technology they havnt discovered yet. Ive also heard that something to do with transferring legacy is a problem. Edited April 18, 2013 by Gammawaves

they dont even have a character rename service, the most basic and simple of all services,

 

I am not saying they shouldn't have a name change service; but what makes you think this is any different than changing, for instance, race or gender?

I would really like to lift my ship out of the swamp that is Jung Ma. As I said in another thread, we didn't really get a choice of where to go when the servers merged like others did, and the novelty of a RP PVP server died when all the servers went under. Both PVP and RP options are limited at best (this is the lowest pop of the American servers and had the least amount of source servers fed to it). I'd like a choice to rejoin with people that long ago rerolled to greener pastures when the servers were first in limbo.

 

I stuck it out hoping that the the transfers would come and I wouldn't have to do the same work over and over again, losing legacy, character levels, etc. But at this point I feel like I've been punished for my patience.

I have to agree, its insane why it has taken so long. My wife and I at this point feel we would be happier on a RP server, but the many alts we have, starting fresh is not desirable. To move all the toons we have anyway, may get expensive, so either way, Ill prob be screwed....

It has been 10 months since "the initial phase of our Character Transfer Service".

 

The community expected paid transfers 9 months ago.

 

We have gotten NOTHING since then.

 

The silence is beyond old, it is ancient now. We need to know when this is happening. We need to know why it hasn't happened yet. We need SOMETHING. Bioware has been stringing us along on this for far too long, and I am out of patience. Even if you just gave us your excuse, at least we would know there is something happening with these.

 

I promise if you give a rough date estimate and aren't able to meet it exactly I will not throw a hissy fit.

 

Where and when did they say we would be able to transfer? I don't ever remember seeing them say this.

Where and when did they say we would be able to transfer? I don't ever remember seeing them say this.

 

They said it around june in some video that you will be able to transfer off and play with your friends but we've been lied to and later said that its now restricted server transfers then they said they will have server transfers in the fall then they delayed it again.

Where and when did they say we would be able to transfer? I don't ever remember seeing them say this.

 

it's been a while, and lot has happened since the April 27, 2012 blog (1 full year in less than 2 weeks!)

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-april-27th-2012

Arymono: When will character transfers be available for everybody?

 

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.

it was about 5 months after this statement that dallas left austin. this was before the server merge, so i suspect it's possible they abandoned this stated plan in favor of another.

 

as far as i know, there has been no statement definitively saying whether they were going to allow voluntary transfers some day or not. i believe what we're left with is very old statement suggesting voluntary transfers will happen, but the devs know they will not happen unless something catastrophic happens to the population again, like the APAC mess. even then, the solution probably won't have a 'voluntary' element.

 

it would be nice if they dropped in and put this to rest. just tell us something like they want to do transfers, but it's a very low priority and while they know it's a hot topic among much of the remaining user base they just don't care and isn't going to happen. or maybe they can tell us it's still a high priority, like it's been for over a year, and they will have a solution for us soon.

it would be nice if they dropped in and put this to rest. just tell us something like they want to do transfers, but it's a very low priority and while they know it's a hot topic among much of the remaining user base they just don't care and isn't going to happen. or maybe they can tell us it's still a high priority, like it's been for over a year, and they will have a solution for us soon.

 

To them, its one of their top priorities but to us it looks to be a low priority based on how slow their team is moving. They said Soon so many times but it doesn't say much, their soon translates to forever to us.

Official announcements have stopped but not them talking about the issue. Here is a post I posted for someone else earlier this month.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6102124

 

Until they have a solid date for when they will roll it out you will only hear soon or we are working on it. Around January they said there were a couple phases to getting it out. The first was PTS copy which they had but didn't work all that well. I assume they are working with all the data they had from that to make it better. If the character copy we had for PTS was implemented live there would be so many QQ threads they couldn't keep up. I know I was able to transfer my characters but none of the comms or credits they had. This is an issue if you are doing it on live servers. Also the PTS one didn't remove the original character. The PTS copy didn't work for everyone either.

 

I would rather have to wait and have them make sure it is done right then rush it and have it be broken.

Official announcements have stopped but not them talking about the issue. Here is a post I posted for someone else earlier this month.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6102124

 

Until they have a solid date for when they will roll it out you will only hear soon or we are working on it. Around January they said there were a couple phases to getting it out. The first was PTS copy which they had but didn't work all that well. I assume they are working with all the data they had from that to make it better. If the character copy we had for PTS was implemented live there would be so many QQ threads they couldn't keep up. I know I was able to transfer my characters but none of the comms or credits they had. This is an issue if you are doing it on live servers. Also the PTS one didn't remove the original character. The PTS copy didn't work for everyone either.

 

I would rather have to wait and have them make sure it is done right then rush it and have it be broken.

 

Though I am starting to get impatient with this considering the server merge saw me renaiming all but one character, part of me doesnt want to wait. However, i'm sure they realise that rolling it out before it works and causing a bunch of problems with people losing characters or items or worse cartel coins (worse cause of the real money part), that the fallout from that would be far worse than the new thread for server transferes that is created each and every day.

thanks for the link Vegihan. that statement from customer service did not actually say that this was something they intend to implement at any point in the future. it also does not clarify whether future transfers would be voluntary, or if players could voluntarily pick a server to transfer to. there is still hope. 'hope' is a word Cerimon actually used in her response.

I am not saying they shouldn't have a name change service; but what makes you think this is any different than changing, for instance, race or gender?

 

Story makes that more difficult. If your name changes, story remains unchanged. If your race or sex is changed, parts of your story will play out differently (small parts, but theyre still there and cant be ignored).

 

For example, if you switch your male character to a female then what happens with your companion romances? Sure you could say, "just let your character be a lesbian," but I highly doubt the dialogue has been recorded for this.

 

This is true with a species change as well, but it probably doesnt make as much of a difference since all the references to your species are done in conversations and dont build on themselves in future conversations (like the romances do). This is probably while were getting species changes soon and not sex changes. But I still dont understand why no name changes?

someone atleast responded about this finally, not really that helpful, but hey.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=627949

It has been 10 months since "the initial phase of our Character Transfer Service".

 

The community expected paid transfers 9 months ago.

 

Part of the community expected it 9 months ago. I certainly did not.

 

The issue with paid transfers is it exacerbates server pop imbalances which are an issue when servers are near capacity.

Soon™

someone atleast responded about this finally, not really that helpful, but hey.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=627949

 

Usual vague Bioware blah-blah.

 

They have the technology for server transfers since April 2012 when the first wave of forced server merges was initiated. Because that involved a lot of character renaming, they also have the technology for name changes in place. Since 1.4 they have the technology for micro transactions. It would be very easy to add both to the cartel market and of course, Bioware would LOVE to generate extra revenue from name changes and transfers.

 

So why don't they?

 

Let's assume you pay for a name change or a server transfer and a few weeks later, that server will be closed and you are forced to transfer somewhere else where you lose your name again.

Naturally, you would be upset and (if you are like me) you would demand a refund.

 

The most probable answer is unstable game population.

 

SWTOR lost 1.2 million subbed accounts after launch and it went down to approximately 500K subs. As a result, they were forced to merge servers. Now they have something like 2M accounts total, but that includes all the F2P accounts. Outside of EA/Bioware, it is anyone's guess if these accounts really generate a significant revenue stream.

 

To avoid customer complaints and refunds, Bioware is likely holding off until they believe that SWTOR has become a successful and stable MMO.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Totaltrash

Part of the community expected it 9 months ago. I certainly did not.

 

The issue with paid transfers is it exacerbates server pop imbalances which are an issue when servers are near capacity.

 

Paid transfers will have very minimal impact on server populations. I already play full time on Jedi Covenant, I want to play my alts that are stuck on Shadowlands, but I don't want to play them on Shadowlands. Therefore I will still be playing on Jedi Cov and still not be playing on Shadowlands. I would guess a rather large majority of the people that want transfers are in the same boat as me.

 

Regardless, that excuse was valid 6 months ago, it holds no water now.

considering they dont even have a character rename service, the most basic and simple of all services, its not a suprise you cant transfer characters. The common reason given is that they dont have the technology to do transfers since transfers require futuristic advanced technology they havnt discovered yet. Ive also heard that something to do with transferring legacy is a problem.

 

Character rename is not a basic service, it is one I am personally very opposed to and think it has no place in MMOs.

 

They did them back in June, they can do them now. They told us the PTS copy was kinda like a beta for transfers, the PTS has been long closed and the copies seemed to work fine at the end.

 

There are no more excuses.

I would rather have to wait and have them make sure it is done right then rush it and have it be broken.

 

As long as the manual system is still in place and can fix any errors, I would rather they put it out now. Which is better, waiting a week for their CSRs to fix an issue or waiting several more months for them to even release it?

 

I'll take the week wait, the character I want to transfer I don't even play anymore because hes on the wrong server.

Paid transfers will have very minimal impact on server populations. I already play full time on Jedi Covenant, I want to play my alts that are stuck on Shadowlands, but I don't want to play them on Shadowlands. Therefore I will still be playing on Jedi Cov and still not be playing on Shadowlands. I would guess a rather large majority of the people that want transfers are in the same boat as me.

 

Regardless, that excuse was valid 6 months ago, it holds no water now.

 

This. Exactly this. Down to the two servers, even.

 

And yes, people can make the argument that during that time I could have easily started over with that character and I'd already be 50 (or 55 now). True, but that would have taken time away from leveling other toons. Toons whose story I had not yet seen. Toons that I continue to play and enjoy. Why would I do the exact same toon again, when clearly an option can and should be available to simply transfer him over to a server on which I play.

This. Exactly this. Down to the two servers, even.

 

And yes, people can make the argument that during that time I could have easily started over with that character and I'd already be 50 (or 55 now). True, but that would have taken time away from leveling other toons. Toons whose story I had not yet seen. Toons that I continue to play and enjoy. Why would I do the exact same toon again, when clearly an option can and should be available to simply transfer him over to a server on which I play.

 

That's pretty funny that you are even on the same two servers...your Shadowlands characters didn't happen to start out on Grand Master Zym did they?

To them, its one of their top priorities but to us it looks to be a low priority based on how slow their team is moving. They said Soon so many times but it doesn't say much, their soon translates to forever to us.

 

Soon= Sometime between EA pulling the plug on this project and the sun going supernova. AKA as never.

 

That's pretty funny that you are even on the same two servers...your Shadowlands characters didn't happen to start out on Grand Master Zym did they?

 

Hahahaha. Nope. Tarro Blood.

 

That would have been really crazy!

 

And actually, at this point, I've redone 3 of the 4 (since those three were still relatively low level anyway). But my Guardian is 50 and really just don't want to go all the way through doing it again. Especially since I have a level 51 sentinel as well. So, doing that story line a third time is just not really on my to do list.