Walking-Carpet Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) Just curious-- Those of you who state (in this thread and others) that you lost your name to a level 1 character--how do you know the level of the character who got your name? I've heard I can see this info if I /friend the other character. I've done that, but all I can see in my Friends list is their name. I can't see any other details unless they're logged in. Edited September 18, 2012 by Walking-Carpet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nastynas Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) Just when I was thinking things can't really get much worse, they do. These are the type of things you explain to your customers in a blog post before the fact. Well, you would if you were being transparent about all these mergers, transfers, consolidation, forced transfers or whatever they're being called. I guess communication hasn't gotten better. How to Lose Subscribers and Alienate Players by Bioware Austin. Edited September 18, 2012 by Nastynas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthTHC Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 When naming conflicts occur due to the consolidation, players are given priority based on a variety of factors such as character play time and if they have already had to rename their characters as part of the first character transfer program back in June. Please do keep in mind that this does not encompass all of the factors taken into consideration, but those are an example of the major ones. This is a really, really crappy implementation. If you had that rule for the first server transfers, I would have kept my characters' names. Now since the ones I had to rename have a great deal of time played, they kept their names. Names I didn't want. I mean, I think this is great for the new transferees coming in. It's definitely more fair than whoever was on the server first, even if they're an unplayed level 1 on a terminated account. It's just that you should have done it the FIRST time because now it's just frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hambunctious Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 The biggest issue with allowing same first names to exist is the mail system they would first need to have someway to identify which character X the mail is meant for. Same issue for whispers. Easy enough to do with a toggle to see/hide a @name behind the first name. Like there could have been a Zeus@chosenhiddenname. the chosen hidden name could be whatever you want, and not allowed to have special characters, but could contain numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cashogy Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 When naming conflicts occur due to the consolidation, players are given priority based on a variety of factors such as character play time and if they have already had to rename their characters as part of the first character transfer program back in June. Please do keep in mind that this does not encompass all of the factors taken into consideration, but those are an example of the major ones. good job providing as vague an answer as possible. what is so hard about telling us exactly what the factors are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wodaz Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Easy enough to do with a toggle to see/hide a @name behind the first name. Like there could have been a Zeus@chosenhiddenname. the chosen hidden name could be whatever you want, and not allowed to have special characters, but could contain numbers. I know this is what they did by looking at my guild list. Characters that have to be renamed currently look like this in a guild list "Wodaz_065"...I'm sure this is for mail and GTN purposes, until that charcater is renamed at which point the "Wodaz_065" pre-made name assigned to me is attached to my new renamed character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RazielHex Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 This is a really, really crappy implementation. If you had that rule for the first server transfers, I would have kept my characters' names. See, that's the thing with ignorance. You don't know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 When DAoC did server mergers, they just put your origin server at the end of your name. No one lost their name. And it sucked. It was convenient for them, but was meh or sucked for players. It did not make you feel like you had a unique name. Rather a name with a server name bolted to the back of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master-Nala Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 When naming conflicts occur due to the consolidation, players are given priority based on a variety of factors such as character play time and if they have already had to rename their characters as part of the first character transfer program back in June. Please do keep in mind that this does not encompass all of the factors taken into consideration, but those are an example of the major ones. Then please explain the factors. Why can't you just explain how it worked. I have a day 1 character on Harbinger that I have to change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imhotep Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 My wife, and I, are we. We share this one account. Ah I figured it was something like that. Just pokin at ya. Sorry trying to get out of this really bad mood. I dislike losing my names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlagaNerezza Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 What is with the drama over this topic? Does a change in name affect guild membership? -no Does a change in name affect rank/status? -no Does a change in name affect bound items? -no Does a change in name affect playability? -no I think issues like, 2 hour queues are way more serious. Considering I finally get the benefit of my legacy characters I am more than happy to deal with renaming my character. I lost Matty to PoF and I loved having my irl nickname. I want to keep my name but if I gotta rename I'll come up with something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness_Squall Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) Look at this thread, full of people complaining about having to change their names. I bet these are the exact same people that went around trolling threads a month ago, saying "it's just a name, get over it", because they were keeping their names at the time. So you lost your names even though you were on a "destination server"? This may be difficult to understand, but it's because someone else deserved it more than you, for whatever reason. I bought this game for $65 dollars and now I see it on bargain shelves for $15. I've been a loyal subscriber the whole time. Should I lose my character name to someone who's been subbed for 1 month just because I was unlucky enough to be on an origin server, something I had no control over? So THANK YOU BIOWARE. You've done a very good thing here, and restored my faith in this game and the company. P.S. The same renaming process has been used for guilds. Whichever guild deserved to keep the name got to keep it. As it should be. Edited September 18, 2012 by Darkness_Squall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovatek Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I've been on The Harbinger since the begining and still lost 7 out of 8 character names. And I never got a gannifari pet either. Screw this. I'm done with SWTOR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Babydoll_ Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) I was on Harbringer, and stayed on Harbringer with the server merges. Since I didn't move, why does it say I have to change my names? I only had one problem with a name that I was using as a place holder for when paid xfers were available. Why should I have to give any names to other servers? Oddly, the exact same name on the server I want to transfer I got the name I lost on the server i wanted to transfer into. Go figure. The system isn't very smart since that character isn't even level 2 and it overwrite whoever had the name on the destination server. This system isn't being fair to people who transfer in July since we don't get a crack at names with our old origin server names. It gives benefit to late transfers and people moving from a second server. This is uncalled for. Why should late transfers get any benefit of doubt while us early transfers had to force name changed all our characters. Edited September 18, 2012 by _Babydoll_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackavaar Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I've been on The Harbinger since the begining and still lost 7 out of 8 character names. And I never got a gannifari pet either. Screw this. I'm done with SWTOR. The new Harbinger is not the old Harbinger. It is an entirely new mega server that shares the same name as the previous server. They really should have used entirely new names for these mega servers. It would saved them all of this confusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rinth Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 What is with the drama over this topic? Does a change in name affect guild membership? -no Does a change in name affect rank/status? -no Does a change in name affect bound items? -no Does a change in name affect playability? -no I think issues like, 2 hour queues are way more serious. Considering I finally get the benefit of my legacy characters I am more than happy to deal with renaming my character. I lost Matty to PoF and I loved having my irl nickname. I want to keep my name but if I gotta rename I'll come up with something. The issue is that some people actually see these as characters in a role playing game (RPG) and not just a toon in some shooting game. I can't even get home to see how many names I've lost yet and by the time I get a chance log on the densely populated new "super servers" will have even fewer naming options left. This was poorly done. If Bioware had at least explained how this would play out beforehand then at least the shock factor would have been minimized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master-Nala Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 The new Harbinger is not the old Harbinger. It is an entirely new mega server that shares the same name as the previous server. They really should have used entirely new names for these mega servers. It would saved them all of this confusion. Link? People keep saying that, but they seem to be making an inference that this is what happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wodaz Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 The new Harbinger is not the old Harbinger. It is an entirely new mega server that shares the same name as the previous server. They really should have used entirely new names for these mega servers. It would saved them all of this confusion. QFE!! If these naming issues weren't happening I could see why they kept server names, but since there basically new servers...not sure why they did this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness_Squall Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 The issue is that some people actually see these as characters in a role playing game (RPG) and not just a toon in some shooting game. I can't even get home to see how many names I've lost yet and by the time I get a chance log on the densely populated new "super servers" will have even fewer naming options left. This was poorly done. If Bioware had at least explained how this would play out beforehand then at least the shock factor would have been minimized. Why don't you wait until you log in before you panic about how few names you have left? If they explained how it would play out beforehand, no one would've transferred early. If I'd transferred early, I would've lost 6 character names. Since I predicted/hoped for something like this, I waited, and I lost zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evensong Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I am lucky as I have only one character to rename and other 15 characters are good:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackavaar Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Link? People keep saying that, but they seem to be making an inference that this is what happened. Look at the High Population Servers and Consolidation Matrix link on this page. Note how your server is likely listed as both an Origin and Destination? That is because the Destination is the new mega server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Babydoll_ Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) Then please explain the factors. Why can't you just explain how it worked. I have a day 1 character on Harbinger that I have to change. It's based on characters level and active account. I'm pretty sure that these are the requirements since I had a level 1 character overwrite a destination server original character names owner. None of the characters I been leveling were overwritten, but a place holder character was overwritten, which I'm confidant had I level it would not have been overwritten. This consolidation feature also overwrite bank characters. This big mess would never have happen in wow. It would always be first come and first serve like it should be. What they should have done is allow people to petition names like in wow to release names. This current system doesn't do any thing to add more names. It doesn't really matter I'm canceling. They will be fallout from this too no matter what. They should have just finish transfers back july to have avoid a second round of bad rep. Edited September 18, 2012 by _Babydoll_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness_Squall Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) I only had one problem with a name that I was using as a place holder for when paid xfers were available. Why should I have to give any names to other servers? Oddly, the exact same name on the server I want to transfer I got the name I lost on the server i wanted to transfer into. Go figure. The system isn't very smart since that character isn't even level 2 and it overwrite whoever had the name on the destination server. This system isn't being fair to people who transfer in July since we don't get a crack at names with our old origin server names. It gives benefit to late transfers and people moving from a second server. This is uncalled for. Why should late transfers get any benefit of doubt while us early transfers had to force name changed all our characters. No one made you take advantage of the free transfer service. No one had to "force name change" their characters. It all was 100% optional, and you made your decision. This server merge WAS forced. You're telling me that you, who intentionally sacrificed your character names to transfer early, should have priority over players who refused to transfer because they didn't want to lose their names? Edited September 18, 2012 by Darkness_Squall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindpig Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Every MMO that I have ever played has always required those who change servers to change their names if someone on the server already has that name. This has always been the case even if it was not your choice to move. There have even been cases in other games, that have required the person who is moving to change their name even in the when the name was held by someone who has not played the game for years. This is always done to avoid making your long terms customers from getting as mad as everyone is right now. People generally understand that things change when you have to move. They quite reasonably do not understand why they should have to change for someone who is choosing to move or is being moved. This is especially true for those of us who have had names on the same server from the first hours of early access. It also holds true for those of us who have chosen to re-roll those same characters on the same server, because we did not like the class, advanced class, or maybe the character just did not look quite right. On what should be a related topic: Is there any reason why you could not keep the legacy names unique to the server and then tie the character names to the legacy? This would let everyone on the server use most any name they like without having to worry about someone else having the same name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness_Squall Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I've been on The Harbinger since the begining and still lost 7 out of 8 character names. And I never got a gannifari pet either. Screw this. I'm done with SWTOR. Mmhmm. How long have you had an active subscription? What level were your characters? When were they created? How many hours of playtime did you sink into them? That's why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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