The goal here is to round up the information so you don't have to read 44+ pages of vitriol to get to what the devs said. This is a round up of known information. Just the facts here, please DO NOT post your opinions or reactions to transfer info.

 

If you have an *opinion* about what the devs said, please post it in the appropriate thread. No one is going to read or listen to you here in this thread. The thread below is where all the official discussion is taking place.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4547928#post4547928

 

TL;DR VERSION

 

• Release of character transfer is June 12th. http://www.swtor.com/transfer will open then. Will have a FAQ with details forthcoming.
  
• You can not transfer where ever you want. BW is trying to direct the population to and from certain servers.
  
• Transfers will be from a selected group of origin servers to a selected group of destination servers. Each origin server will have one and only one destination server throughout the process, but many origin servers may be directed to the same destination server.
  
• Very few origin servers will be transferring to an existing high-pop server.
  
• Your only choice at this time is to transfer to the one single destination server that is paired with your origin server or staying on your current origin server. If you don't like this, you can wait til the future when there may be more permissive paid transfers available.
  
• Will be a gradual process. Limit to how many characters can be moved daily. Process will take a few hours after queuing for transfer.
  
• Each origin server will go to one and only one destination server and the option to transfer to that one and only one destination server will be open for "as long as needed" so that everyone from that server who wants to move to the one and only one destination server will have the option to move and plenty of time to do it. They will give "plenty of advanced notice" if they are going to stop the free transfers to the designated destination server. This means that you and EVERYONE on your server will only have the option to go to one destination server so you're still going to be with the same folks from your current server IF you choose to take the free transfer.
  
• Free transfers will be between the same server types/languages/regions. That means transfers are only within one server type (from a US EST RP-PvP server to another US EST RP-PvP server; from a EUR German PvE server to another EUR German PvE server, and so on).
  
• Cannot provide details of origin/destination pairs ahead of time. When one destination server fills up, then they will set a new destination server for the next origin server. Will adapt to population movements as they occur.
  
• If you have a legacy on both servers, the higher level legacy will take precedence, but you will keep all unlocks of both legacies.
  
• You will have the option to transfer all of your characters from the origin server to the one and only one destination server assigned to you.
  
• Guild will not transfer as a whole. You'll have to disband your guild on your old origin server and reform the guild on the new destination server (4 characters, 5k credits).
  
• Take all items and credits out of the guild bank, it will not transfer. Contact Customer Service to re-establish the Guild Bank and Guild Bank tabs.
  
• If your character-legacy-guild name conflicts with an existing name on the destination server, you will have to change your name (the first person on the destination server with the name "gets" it.) You will have to rename your Legacy, regardless, but you can pick the same name as you originally had (if it's free, if not you'll have to pick a new name).
  
• There may be an option to pay for transfer to where ever you want down the road, after the free transfers are settled. Future versions of character transfer may allow more options for destination servers and may require a fee. No time frame on when that will occur.
  

 

WHAT THEY SAID

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/character-transfer-server-populations-and-you

 

Character Transfer, Server Populations and You

 

In a previous Community Q&A we talked about character transfers, and announced that they were coming in early summer. Character transfers are a complex process, but we're almost ready to go. Starting next week on June 12th, 2012, we’re allowing character transfers to occur between selected servers in order to provide a better gameplay experience for our players by ensuring population balance across the service.

 

Game Update 1.3 is focused around group content, with the Group Finder designed to help you enjoy Flashpoints, Operations and Heroic Missions in groups. However, we know that a Group Finder can only work when there is a large pool of players to draw from on a server. That's why the new Character Transfer Service is important: it will improve the overall player experience by facilitating maximized server populations across the service.

 

How will it work?

 

Initially we considered allowing players to transfer to any server they wished, or to a variety of different servers. However, on a massive scale, this free-for-all approach causes potential problems. Players who are anxious to ensure they end up on a heavily populated server will naturally flock to what is perceived as the 'biggest' server, potentially over-populating that server. This eventually leads to the exact situation we're trying to move away from. Our aim is to maximize server population across the entire service and to enhance the gameplay experience for our players.

 

Therefore, we made the decision to strictly limit the initial phase of the Character Transfer Service to only allow transfers from selected groups of origin servers (where you're moving a character from) to selected individual destination servers (where you choose to move a character to) based on the player populations of the origin and destination servers. In some cases, a large number of origin servers will be eligible to move to a single destination server. In others, very few origin servers will be transferring to existing high population destination servers. Remember, the goal here is to push almost every destination server to an active population that's higher.

 

This process will be gradual and staged over time. Despite huge improvements being made to the Character Transfer Service by our server team, there are millions of characters to be moved and there is a limit to how many can be moved daily. We want your character to be transferred as quickly as possible, but we will need you to be patient as the process completes. Once your transfer starts we estimate it will complete in a few hours, but with the potential volume of transfers occurring, you may find your character is queued for transfer for a while as we deal with the high volume.

 

We're sure many of you are interested to learn which servers are eligible for outgoing transfers and which servers are eligible to receive transfers. However, because the process will be gradual, we cannot provide that information in advance. Depending on the number of characters transferred, the destination and origin servers eligible for transfer may be altered during the process. We don't want to promise a destination in case it may change. Listings will become available as servers become eligible for transfer. We can tell you that all server types and languages will be respected. You will not find your PvE characters transferred to a PvP server, or vice versa!

 

There are also some restrictions to this character transfer process , which will be more fully detailed in a forthcoming FAQ. For those who have unlocked Legacy abilities, your Legacy will be transferred to your new server and your unlocks will be available there too. If you have already unlocked your Legacy on your destination server, the higher level Legacy will take precedence. For guild members and masters, you will not be able to transfer your guild as a whole to your new server; instead you will need to reform it. If you have a guild bank, it will be re-granted to your new guild on your destination server by Customer Service. This is not an automatic process and you will have to contact Customer Service directly. If your transferred character’s name conflicts with an existing name on a destination server, you will be asked to rename your character. In the case of Legacy names, unless you have unlocked your Legacy on your destination server, you will need to rename your Legacy upon transfer (although you may pick the same Legacy name as on your origin server, if available).

 

The next step

 

We believe that by carefully allowing character transfer between select origin and destination servers, players will have a healthier gameplay experience. With the Group Finder available in Game Update 1.3, we intend for players to be able to easily assemble full groups for all sorts of content.

 

We understand that some of you may be looking to consolidate characters from a variety of origin servers onto one server, and others may be anxious to move to a specific server to be with friends. With the restrictions of this initial service, that may not be possible. We still believe that you will enjoy playing on a higher population server and hope you'll take advantage of the service, but you won't be forced to transfer. Future versions of the Character Transfer Service may allow more options in your choice of destination servers and may require a transfer fee. While we do not have a scheduled time frame for the launch of such a service, we are committed to making improvements to the Character Transfer Service over time to provide players with a great gameplay experience. Stay tuned to http://www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com for more details!

 

Summary

 

We've been working as fast as we can to create a viable Character Transfer Service and we appreciate your patience as we've worked to create it. The good news is that the wait is almost over. We're in the final stretch of testing the service, and our release is now June 12th, 2012. Game Update 1.3 will be along not too long afterwards. We hope that the character transfer and the Group Finder will help everyone experience the full array of content available in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

 

These are additional clarification posts from the Dev Tracker

http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php

 

-We'll be providing a list of origin servers and destination servers. Each origin server will have one destination server, and players can elect to transfer their characters from the origin server to the destination. Our goal is to have destination servers with a much higher active player population, so we'll be monitoring the process and adding new origin and destination pairs as necessary to reach that goal.

 

-We haven't finalized the initial list of origin and destination servers. We know everyone is eager to see them, and we will provide them when we're able - we don't want to provide a list and then have to change it.

 

-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.

 

-What we're saying here is that we're unable to provide the origins and destinations in advance because those lists may change internally as we watch the response to transfers. We'll be monitoring populations and how many players are transferring, which will inform our decisions about further origin and destination servers. We won't be changing the destination on you once it's announced, we just don't want to announce a pair too early.

 

-Many guild leaders have contacted us with their concerns about coordinating their guild members in preparation for the free character transfer service and I wanted to take some time to explain how this process will work.

 

In order to ensure an optimal playing experience for every server, we’ll be offering direct transfers from one origin server to a pre-selected destination server. This means that the destination server will already be selected for the origin server. As mentioned in our blog post, all server types and languages will be respected. You will not find your PvE characters transferred to a PvP server, or vice versa.

 

Therefore, all guild members on the origin server will be eligible to transfer to the same destination server, ensuring that the guild has the opportunity to stay together.

 

As we mentioned in our blog, the character transfer service will be made available gradually, starting with a small number of origin servers and adding more until all servers eligible for transfer are available in the service. We know everyone is excited for the opportunity to transfer their characters, but it is critical that we do this gradually to ensure both a smooth transfer as well as a great player experience on the destination servers.

 

Eligible servers will be listed as they become available for transfers at http://www.swtor.com/transfer, which will go live on Tuesday. This is to prevent potential server load issues.

 

Please note that we will not be dividing the population of an origin server onto multiple destination servers for this free character transfer process.

 

Additionally, players need not worry about rushing to transfer as free character transfers between selected servers will remain available for as long as it is needed to help balance server populations naturally. Rest assured that if we ever decide to stop this free character transfer service, players will be given plenty of advanced notice.

 

-Our overall goal is that destination servers will have a higher active population than origin servers that are able to transfer to them

 

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

 

-We do have more information about character transfers coming, and we'll post a detailed FAQ that will answer many specific questions. As for being concerned about not being able to transfer to the same server as your son during free transfers, you don't have anything to worry about. Each server that becomes eligible for transfers will have just one destination server, and you'll be able to move all your characters from your origin server to that destination server. We'll announce these servers at the start of the program and then will add more as the program continues (and you'll be able to see all the information on http://www.swtor.com/transfer starting on the 12th), and we'll make sure to let everyone know what servers are available and when.

 

-On Tuesday (the 12th), we'll be starting the free character transfer service - if your server becomes eligible for transfer, you'll be able to move all your characters to the selected destination server free of charge.

 

-If your server becomes eligible for free character transfers, you'll be able to move all your characters from that server onto the destination server.

 

-We do have more information about character transfers coming, and we'll post a detailed FAQ that will answer many specific questions. As for being concerned about not being able to transfer to the same server as your son during free transfers, you don't have anything to worry about. Each server that becomes eligible for transfers will have just one destination server, and you'll be able to move all your characters from your origin server to that destination server. We'll announce these servers at the start of the program and then will add more as the program continues (and you'll be able to see all the information on http://www.swtor.com/transfer starting on the 12th), and we'll make sure to let everyone know what servers are available and when.

 

-On Tuesday (the 12th), we'll be starting the free character transfer service - if your server becomes eligible for transfer, you'll be able to move all your characters to the selected destination server free of charge.

 

-If your server becomes eligible for free character transfers, you'll be able to move all your characters from that server onto the destination server.

 

-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.

 

 

-"In order to ensure an optimal playing experience for every server, we’ll be offering direct transfers from one origin server to a pre-selected destination server. This means that the destination server will already be selected for the origin server. As mentioned in our blog post, all server types and languages will be respected. You will not find your PvE characters transferred to a PvP server, or vice versa.

 

Therefore, all guild members on the origin server will be eligible to transfer to the same destination server, ensuring that the guild has the opportunity to stay together.

 

Please note that we will not be dividing the population of an origin server onto multiple destination servers for this free character transfer process."

 

With this information, you can see that you do not need to transfer at the same exact time.

 

-"Additionally, players need not worry about rushing to transfer as free character transfers between selected servers will remain available for as long as it is needed to help balance server populations naturally. Rest assured that if we ever decide to stop this free character transfer service, players will be given plenty of advanced notice."

Edited June 10, 2012 by Scorpienne

Thanks for the bullet point summary. I've bookmarked this page - I hope the thread doesn't get removed because 'others like this exist', as I'll need it for when my Alliance needs to have it's 'rats jumping a sinking ship' meeting.

The main thing im worried about is i play on an RP-PVP server, and their is only three servers of this type.

I play on the English server and their are also two others a French and German Laugauge, which discounts these out from merging. Their are eight other RP servers in total (well in other words RP-PVE) but as Bio-ware have stated no transfers will be made from PVP to PVE.

 

So my question is where does this leave us?

 

They will either do two things

 

Give us the option to transfer to a RP server....i dont think they will be transfering from other RP servers to ours because of the PVP part of our RP server.

 

Or they will give PVP servers the option to transfer to our RP - PVP which i hope they dont do. Players that choose an RP option in their server , are a different type of player that would choose PVP servers. In my opinion if they go down this road it kill the community on our server.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Reenox

I read it as there may be an opportunity for a guild to stay together but it's far from certain for larger ones. Members who are not quick enough could find the destination server full.

 

From a community perspective with established relationships made over several months of playing now, this seems a big miss on Bioware's part not to enable a GM to move lock, stock and barrel.

Thanks for the bullet point summary. I've bookmarked this page - I hope the thread doesn't get removed because 'others like this exist', as I'll need it for when my Alliance needs to have it's 'rats jumping a sinking ship' meeting.

 

Heh. I got frustrated reading through 20 pages of people being unable or unwilling to read and asking the same questions again and again on the main thread, so I put the list together for my guildies and my server. I figured it might be useful as a public service announcement for anyone who also loathes going through a thread like that looking for yellow text.

 

I'll keep it updated with "just the facts, ma'am!" of the dev responses so folks don't have to wade through the drek to figure out what the official word is.

 

Paige

Edited June 7, 2012 by Scorpienne

Thanks for taking the time and effort to gather all the information here, Scorpienne. We really appreciate it when the community takes the initiative like this to help out others in the community.

 

I read it as there may be an opportunity for a guild to stay together but it's far from certain for larger ones. Members who are not quick enough could find the destination server full..

I wouldn't worry about that. From what I've understood, the free transfer service will be in place for a while, at least until we are notified they're closing it down. Besides, the transfers won't make a destination server full, because then no one could ever roll an alt anymore

The main thing im worried about is i play on an RP-PVP server, and their is only three servers of this type.

I play on the English server and their are also two others a French and German Laugauge, which discounts these out from merging. Their are eight other RP servers in total (well in other words RP-PVE) but as Bio-ware have stated no transfers will be made from PVP to PVE.

 

So my question is where does this leave us?

 

They will either do two things

 

Give us the option to transfer to a RP server....i dont think they will be transfering from other RP servers to ours because of the PVP part of our RP server.

 

Or they will give PVP servers the option to transfer to our RP - PVP which i hope they dont do. Players that choose an RP option in their server , are a different type of player that would choose PVP servers. In my opinion if they go down this road it kill the community on our server.

 

Honestly? If there's only one server of that type, and it's underpopulated... well, obviously there aren't enough people who want that experience. If it were up to me, in that case, I would allow transfers to a normal RP server, since the PvP designation is really pointless in this game anyway. I've leveled all of my toons on a PvP server and only a handful of times have I ever run into an player of the opposite faction and initiated combat.

Edited June 7, 2012 by cshouston

Thanks for taking the time and effort to gather all the information here, Scorpienne. We really appreciate it when the community takes the initiative like this to help out others in the community.

 

/bow Thanks! I was trying to be very up-front about the purpose here versus the main thread.

 

Paige

Added with new Dev Tracker posts and clarifications.

 

Paige

The question most commonly asked by my small guild is "Will the transfers be by character or account?". In other words, will each character be transferred individually as limit allows (8 toons on a server= 8 transfers) or will the account holder be able to transfer all characters with a single transfer?

The question most commonly asked by my small guild is "Will the transfers be by character or account?". In other words, will each character be transferred individually as limit allows (8 toons on a server= 8 transfers) or will the account holder be able to transfer all characters with a single transfer?

 

I get the impression it will likely be per character, but it would be nice to see the option of moving characters a lump from one server to another. Of course with characters taking some time to be processed, you could queue them if do them in lumps, so that you still have a character to play while you wait.

There is no official answer if the transfer is by character or account. Anything else is speculation. :-)

 

Paige

I'm assuming that the Destination servers will be the more populated servers of a particular server type/time zone.

For example, The Ebon Hawk and Lord Adraas would seem to be likely Destination servers for the other Eastern RP servers. Is my line of thinking correct?

Bioware hasn't said what criteria they're using. No one publicly knows what criteria they're using. Anyone who says that they do know better cite their links because all I've seen is speculation.

 

 

 

Paige

I'm not claiming to know, just guessing. Offering transfers off of several lesser populated servers to the higher populated servers of that type/time zone would just seem to make the most sense.

I'm not claiming to know, just guessing. Offering transfers off of several lesser populated servers to the higher populated servers of that type/time zone would just seem to make the most sense.

 

I'm trying to keep speculation *out* of this thread. This is not the right place for it. You might choose to voice your speculations in the official thread - it's not impossible you'll get a dev to comment on them there.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=472600

Updated with new bullet points and some clarifications from the newest dev tracker comments.

 

Paige

Sorry if i missed this one point......if it was listed but i didnt see it. I understand that guild banks wont be transfered but what about the players own bank.....will it transfer with the character with no problems?.....or does that also need to be handled with CS.

Suggestion for a small change to one of the bullet points:

If you have a legacy on both servers, the higher level legacy will take precedence.

 

I'd change that to:

If you have a legacy on both servers, the higher level legacy will take precedence but you will keep all unlocks of both legacies.

 

Really great job this thread!

Great work there

keep it up

this is needed and should be stickied so the community can have a TRansfers FAQ

Updated with new dev tracker info, updated bullet points.

 

Sauska - thanks for the better wording on the legacy bullet.

 

Also highlighted the answers to the most common questions asked on the forums by people who can not or refuse to read the information from BW.

 

Paige

Edited June 8, 2012 by Scorpienne

I read it as there may be an opportunity for a guild to stay together but it's far from certain for larger ones. Members who are not quick enough could find the destination server full.

.

 

Highly unlikely. They are not going to keep adding source servers for a single destination server until its full, they will almost certainly monitor how many people are transferring and at what rate until the server reached Heavy but still has some space and then stop nominating new source servers for that destination. That will allow for people to transfer later on without causing it to be instantly full.

 

The transfer process will be ongoing for a while with new combinations published as the process continues to allow BW to manage how the population moves, they want a decent number of good population servers rather than just a few that are overfull.

Highly unlikely.

 

In fact, impossible. The Dev tracker cleared that misconception up completely (I think I sent Parmie a PM with the details.)

 

There's a number of people on the actual comment thread to either can not read or completely refuse to read what the devs have written on this point.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4569378#edit4569378

Quote: Originally Posted by Kindara

"if the destination gets full the destination will be changed. If you don't get transfered at the EXACT same time as your guild mates you will NOT be on the server with them."

 

This is simply not correct. From my previous post:

 

"In order to ensure an optimal playing experience for every server, we’ll be offering direct transfers from one origin server to a pre-selected destination server. This means that the destination server will already be selected for the origin server. As mentioned in our blog post, all server types and languages will be respected. You will not find your PvE characters transferred to a PvP server, or vice versa.

 

Therefore, all guild members on the origin server will be eligible to transfer to the same destination server, ensuring that the guild has the opportunity to stay together.

 

Please note that we will NOT be dividing the population of an origin server onto multiple destination servers for this free character transfer process."

 

With this information, you can see that you do not need to transfer at the same exact time.