From the 4/27/2012 Q&A:

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.

And again...

DrakeAssaShin: What is being done to address low population servers?

 

Dallas: The Character Transfer Service, as mentioned above, will be offering free transfers from/to specific servers. This should allow the most motivated players to get onto a higher population server.

Big news for the SWTOR community, especially those on low population (and super high population) servers. I am personally very pleased that BW is making this first wave of transfers free; good costumer service move on their part.

No exact ETA on the date of these transfers, but I imagine that "Early summer" means sometime in June.

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From the 4/27/2012 Q&A:

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

 

And again...

 

Big news for the SWTOR community, especially those on low population (and super high population) servers. I am personally very pleased that BW is making this first wave of transfers free; good costumer service move on their part.

 

No exact ETA on the date of these transfers, but I imagine that "Early summer" means sometime in June.

I wouldnt assume anything it will help keep you from disapoinment. With the track record so far early summer is prolly some time after the leaves turn orange .And the snow is falling.

The thing that gets me is how so many people can just overlook the fact that transfers are already in the game. To say there not is just blindness. They did it for the apacs. Now yes i understand that it needs to be scaled and modified to roll on all servers.

But the base system is infact there, And i gaurantee it isnt that big a step to take that base system and mod into open useage.

The real reason they dont already have it moded and released is because they know that once it is they will have to either merge or close some servers. As they are ghost towns now. So when the few remaining people on them servers can transfer they will go from ghost towns to pergatorys.

And closing or merging will be viewed as game decline. It will give the company a percieved black eye. But once it settles down and the ones needing transfers move it will begin to increase again as people will be alot happier and more active. Since they will have more people to actualy play with.

They need to stop with the half truths and soons and maybe and just get it done so the game can recover grow and move on.

Better for them to take a black eye and win the fight, Than to keep dancing around and slowly get beat down to a point they cant get up from.

From the 4/27/2012 Q&A:

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

 

And again...

 

Big news for the SWTOR community, especially those on low population (and super high population) servers. I am personally very pleased that BW is making this first wave of transfers free; good costumer service move on their part.

 

No exact ETA on the date of these transfers, but I imagine that "Early summer" means sometime in June.

We don't need transfers, we need merges.

The thing that gets me is how so many people can just overlook the fact that transfers are already in the game. To say there not is just blindness. They did it for the apacs. Now yes i understand that it needs to be scaled and modified to roll on all servers.

 

But the base system is infact there, And i gaurantee it isnt that big a step to take that base system and mod into open useage.

 

The real reason they dont already have it moded and released is because they know that once it is they will have to either merge or close some servers. As they are ghost towns now. So when the few remaining people on them servers can transfer they will go from ghost towns to pergatorys.

 

And closing or merging will be viewed as game decline. It will give the company a percieved black eye. But once it settles down and the ones needing transfers move it will begin to increase again as people will be alot happier and more active. Since they will have more people to actualy play with.

 

They need to stop with the half truths and soons and maybe and just get it done so the game can recover grow and move on.

 

Better for them to take a black eye and win the fight, Than to keep dancing around and slowly get beat down to a point they cant get up from.

Complete nonsense.

Complete nonsense.

Realy. why ?? Just because you dont agree dosnt make nonsense. Your entiteled to your oppion of course. But dosnt change the fact what i said is true. Maybe im wrong about the reasons it isnt available to all (tho i dont believe i am) But theres no denying the system at least in a base form is indeed in the game and been used by many players already.

The feeling that server mergers will signal decline is ridiculous and insane. It's clear to EVERYONE that server mergers are needed to stop people from leaving due to low server pop. It's a vicious circle that needs to end.

EA/BioWare need to man up and admit that the way the servers were handled in the first week was a mistake, and announce in a clear and confident way, that server transfers off those servers, then merging some and closing the dead ones will be a one time correct of that initial error.

The gaming community needs strong, healthy, populated servers and they need to start seeing some better communication and transparency from the dev team. All people want is the ability to play a game they like in an atmosphere that is clear and fair.

I want to leave this low pop server..

and I don't want to because it would restart legacy level >.>

sigh..

The feeling that server mergers will signal decline is ridiculous and insane. It's clear to EVERYONE that server mergers are needed to stop people from leaving due to low server pop. It's a vicious circle that needs to end.

 

EA/BioWare need to man up and admit that the way the servers were handled in the first week was a mistake, and announce in a clear and confident way, that server transfers off those servers, then merging some and closing the dead ones will be a one time correct of that initial error.

 

The gaming community needs strong, healthy, populated servers and they need to start seeing some better communication and transparency from the dev team. All people want is the ability to play a game they like in an atmosphere that is clear and fair.

Agreed 100% they need to stop with the half truths ,Maybes and soons and start being more direct and forth coming with thier plans. As well as incorperating said plans in a more timely and effective manner. Stop making fluff statements and start actualy producing results.

The feeling that server mergers will signal decline is ridiculous and insane. It's clear to EVERYONE that server mergers are needed to stop people from leaving due to low server pop. It's a vicious circle that needs to end.

 

EA/BioWare need to man up and admit that the way the servers were handled in the first week was a mistake, and announce in a clear and confident way, that server transfers off those servers, then merging some and closing the dead ones will be a one time correct of that initial error.

 

The gaming community needs strong, healthy, populated servers and they need to start seeing some better communication and transparency from the dev team. All people want is the ability to play a game they like in an atmosphere that is clear and fair.

Yep.

I don't see how a server transfer ALONE is going to alleviate the problem. Allowing transfers TO a dead server won't help -- who'd want to go to a dead server? Allowing them FROM dead servers would be insane, as the remaining population would be even more screwed.

Close and merge the dead servers. Period.

We don't need transfers, we need merges.

ACK!! No thanks! Do you know how buggy and non-playable it would be to merge servers? No, transferring people off of low-pops and closing them down is good enough, and works great. (Which is NOT a merge. It is a transfer...)

 

Close and merge the dead servers. Period.

by the time they realize that is the right move it will be to late, this game is already on a decline with more and more people quitting everyday. Bioware says subs are still the same and they play less which i call BS, sure i will love to pay 15$ a month and not play.

This entire mess could have been avoided if they had less servers with high pop caps at launch and/or if they prepared transfers ready to be released in case of low pop issues.

by the time they realize that is the right move it will be to late, this game is already on a decline with more and more people quitting everyday. Bioware says subs are still the same and they play less which i call BS, sure i will love to pay 15$ a month and not play.

 

This entire mess could have been avoided if they had less servers with high pop caps at launch and/or if they prepared transfers ready to be released in case of low pop issues.

Despite the incorrect use of the word "merge" that people keep doing, transferring and closing dead servers is probably the FIRST thing they're going to do for FREE.

Despite the incorrect use of the word "merge" that people keep doing, transferring and closing dead servers is probably the FIRST thing they're going to do for FREE.

If by "Transfer" they mean a complete transfer of ALL characters off any given server(s), then it'll all be the same to me. Sounds like you're just arguing semantics.

By the way, one of the fastest turn-around times from launch to server transfers/close was in RIFT last year. TOR still has 35 days to keep up with that.

Transfers for rift came out in a little over 4 months from launch we already going to be passing 5 months for SWTOR soon and at least rift never launched with 120+ US based servers.

If by "Transfer" they mean a complete transfer of ALL characters off any given server(s), then it'll all be the same to me. Sounds like you're just arguing semantics.

Well, I wouldn't bring it up except that when James Ohlen said "we are NOT going to do merges" people are completely misunderstanding him because they think he means transfers/shut-downs.

No, actual server merges are buggy, convoluted, extremely complicated, and usually results in a LOT of players being unable to play until CS sorts things out. It's the process of actually merging the software, economy, loot tables, complete environments of two servers into one.

Obviously, BioWare is not going to do that. And it's not just semantics anymore when people are using the word incorrectly, thus misunderstanding James Ohlen.

Well, I wouldn't bring it up except that when James Ohlen said "we are NOT going to do merges" people are completely misunderstanding him because they think he means transfers/shut-downs.

 

No, actual server merges are buggy, convoluted, extremely complicated, and usually results in a LOT of players being unable to play until CS sorts things out. It's the process of actually merging the software, economy, loot tables, complete environments of two servers into one.

 

Obviously, BioWare is not going to do that. And it's not just semantics anymore when people are using the word incorrectly, thus misunderstanding James Ohlen.

Yeiy transfers, I have no idea why people are complaining still....

Transfers for rift came out in a little over 4 months from launch we already going to be passing 5 months for SWTOR soon and at least rift never launched with 120+ US based servers.

Ok, yes, you're right. My mistake. I was thinking they came with Hammerknell on July 27th, but they were in on June 22, 114 days after launch. So, TOR is slightly past that by about two weeks.

Well, I wouldn't bring it up except that when James Ohlen said "we are NOT going to do merges" people are completely misunderstanding him because they think he means transfers/shut-downs.

 

No, actual server merges are buggy, convoluted, extremely complicated, and usually results in a LOT of players being unable to play until CS sorts things out. It's the process of actually merging the software, economy, loot tables, complete environments of two servers into one.

 

Obviously, BioWare is not going to do that. And it's not just semantics anymore when people are using the word incorrectly, thus misunderstanding James Ohlen.

So it will be transfers only, which is ok. But what about the servers once most are moved? Are they going to keep em all running, burning energy and taking up space, because not everyone will move & what about the people who have stopped playing/subbed? Are they just going to delete their characters or force move them?

What about same name issues? Guilds? GBs? There is so many unanswered questions that needs to be addressed and yet it seems that its the "Well I'm ok!" crowd thats answering and defending the powers that be at every turn. The minute someone complains about something that they are clearly upset or worried about the viral SWTOR neighbourhood watch jumps on them, assults them with names (troll/QQer/doomsayer etc.) or counters with a army of somewhat dodgey facts and sometimes outright lies to silence them (My personal favourite was the "my 600 strong guild is very active" - is that the 1 with the 500 guild member limit? http://www.examiner.com/article/swtor-locks-pre-launch-guild-program). Ok.

So it will be transfers only, which is ok. But what about the servers once most are moved? Are they going to keep em all running, burning energy and taking up space, because not everyone will move & what about the people who have stopped playing/subbed? Are they just going to delete their characters or force move them?

What about same name issues? Guilds? GBs? There is so many unanswered questions that needs to be addressed and yet it seems that its the "Well I'm ok!" crowd thats answering and defending the powers that be at every turn. The minute someone complains about something that they are clearly upset or worried about the viral SWTOR neighbourhood watch jumps on them, assults them with names (troll/QQer/doomsayer etc.) or counters with a army of somewhat dodgey facts and sometimes outright lies to silence them (My personal favourite was the "my 600 strong guild is very active" - is that the 1 with the 500 guild member limit? http://www.examiner.com/article/swtor-locks-pre-launch-guild-program). Ok.

No one knows right now. If they follow RIFT's pattern, which worked really well, they'll put a "move it or lose it" message on the low-pop server, and give everyone on that server a few weeks to find another server, then shut it down.

No one knows right now. If they follow RIFT's pattern, which worked really well, they'll put a "move it or lose it" message on the low-pop server, and give everyone on that server a few weeks to find another server, then shut it down.

I'd do the same thing too. First, some suggested servers. Then, after 2 weeks, the server you wish to join. Finally, a server shut down to finish with about 60-80 north american servers.

Imagine only Heavy / Very Heavy / Full servers after 6pm EST everyday! That'd be simply awesome!