Good morning, or to those of you on the other side of the world, good morning... for tomorrow.

This week we officially launch Star Wars: The Old Republic in several new territories, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Lots of more information on all aspects of the launch will be released tomorrow in an update to our official FAQ, but as we've heard requests for server names and timing, we thought we'd give you those details a little earlier.

Here's our official launch timing. All servers will be online simultaneously at approx 5:01AM CST (Austin time), but with timezones straddling a date:

New Zealand: 12:01am NZDT (March 1st)

Australia: 10:01pm EDT (February 29th)

Singapore: 7:01pm SGT (February 29th)

Hong Kong: 7:01pm HKT (February 29th)

We'll be launching with three initial servers dedicated to these territories. As previously mentioned, these servers are physically located in Australia:

Dalborra (PvE)

Master Dar'Nala (PvP)

Gav Daragon (RP PvE)

If demand requires we open additional servers, we have the hardware ready to go. Our Live Production team will be carefully monitoring server population and potential queues to ensure the best possible experience for players.

As mentioned many more details about the Asia Pacific launch will be forthcoming in tomorrow's FAQ update, so look out for it!

Thanks Stephen much appreciated, tho would have been perfect a week ago to allow people to plan better.

Looking forward to the new servers!

Awesome news.

The AU Crew (hyperspace Pub Crawlers/Hyperspace Pub Brawlers) will roll on Dalborra once its up.

Any news on when transfers are available?

How is it Singaporean server when the server is physically located in Australia ? the ping would be worse than US...

"Oceanic Server Names and Launch Timing"

Think he meant this...

New Zealand: 12:01am NZDT (March 1st)

Australia: 10:01pm EDT (February 29th)

Singapore: 7:01pm SGT (February 29th)

Hong Kong: 7:01pm HKT (February 29th)

Although i see his point that the servers will benefit Aus/NZ but HK and Singapore would have better latency to US Servers

"Oceanic Server Names and Launch Timing"

I meant this :

BioWare and LucasArts are excited to announce that Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will officially launch in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore on March 1st, 2012! Fans in these regions who purchase the game will be able to experience their very own Star Wars™ saga on regional servers. Players who have already begun their journey will also have a limited-time opportunity to migrate their characters from their current servers to Asia Pacific servers after the launch on March 1st, giving them the chance to take advantage of the decreased network latency by playing on a regional server. All players who qualify for a character transfer will be notified in early March with more details.

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It's no good, still Asia is ignored by EA as always.....

Hello SR, can you please give us an idea of how close you are to sending emails out regarding transfers for those of us elligible?

Those emails are planned to be sent later this week, not long after official launch timing.

man, the saying is accurate. Can't make everyone happy all the time.

At least it's a step in the right direction. People have been complaining about it and the company has added new hardware, infrastructure, employees, etc. It's not as easy as putting a PC in your mum's basement.

Australia is an island nation. We are cut off from....everything. Literally. WE are our own mainland. Everything has huge ping times because it's either an undersea cable or a satellite dish that's bouncing signals.

with the amount of aussies etc playing on Jekk Jekk and swiftsure, as well as others like me that are all over the shop surely these 3 servers are going to be completely over run and population capped?

i mean dont get me wrong, i am all for this move and i cant wait to play on an aussie server in terms of having a populated server at the times i play, but will there be any further servers released for these regions?

but will there be any further servers released for these regions?

this question is answered in Stephens original post

Those emails are planned to be sent later this week, not long after official launch timing.

Looks like my guestimation at our guildmeeting last night was pretty much spot on then. Thanks for the info Mr Reid.

with the amount of aussies etc playing on Jekk Jekk and swiftsure, as well as others like me that are all over the shop surely these 3 servers are going to be completely over run and population capped?

i mean dont get me wrong, i am all for this move and i cant wait to play on an aussie server in terms of having a populated server at the times i play, but will there be any further servers released for these regions?

That's what I'm kind of worried about, on Harbinger at peak times, I've seen almost 350 people on the fleet, now combine that with the population from Jekk Jekk and it's going to be chaos, there's no doubt going to be some serious queue's.

Hey,

I was in the States in December (xmas with family) upon the game's release. But preordered and purchased the game in Aust. When I go to my 'essential info' it says Australia as my country.

This means I should receive a transfer option yeah? I'd hate to not receive it because I happened to be in the States when the game was released.

Question, I've been wanting to know this since the transfers were announced, how will legacy experience be handled?

I'm planning on moving my toons and between them I've got 17 legacy levels, I'd really hate to see all that wasted when the system is suppose to be coming out soon.

Hey,

 

I was in the States in December (xmas with family) upon the game's release. But preordered and purchased the game in Aust. When I go to my 'essential info' it says Australia as my country.

 

This means I should receive a transfer option yeah? I'd hate to not receive it because I happened to be in the States when the game was released.

To qualify for free character transfers, players must meet the following requirements by Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 5:01PM EDT, 7:01PM NZDT, 2:01PM HKT, 2:01PM SGT:

 

You specified that your country is Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, or Singapore during your account registration process.

Redeemed an Official Game Production Registration Code on http://www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com Code Redemption Center.

Have had or currently have entered a valid recurring payment method or redeemed a Pre-Paid Game Time Code.

Only characters created on The Old Republic servers by February 28, 2012, 5:01PM EDT, 7:01PM NZDT, 2:01PM HKT, 2:01PM SGT qualify for transfers.

You should be fine.

Q: Will people be able to transfer to these servers when transfers are enabled?

The Older Gamers will be forming two guilds on Dalborra, 1 Empire and 1 Republic

I think an important question all us transferees want answered is; what happens to our legacy names? Do we keep our current legacy rank? And what happens if our legacy name clashes with another transferee's?

^ THIS

I have legacy rank 21 now and actually like my legacy name. I would be very disappointed if we had to start again with the chance of our legacy name no longer being available.

Also what happend to the RP-PvP server?

Ok good. My next question now is about my fiancee. She purchased the game in the States (just before early access) and had her country listed as US. She just went into her profile and changed it from US to Aust. We have both been playing from Aust since Jan 1st (we live here). Will she too be able to transfer her characters too?

It would really suck if she couldn't especially considering the majority of her time was playing from Aus and our entire Aus guild will be moving.

Ok good. My next question now is about my fiancee. She purchased the game in the States (just before early access) and had her country listed as US. She just went into her profile and changed it from US to Aust. We have both been playing from Aust since Jan 1st (we live here). Will she too be able to transfer her characters too?

 

It would really suck if she couldn't especially considering the majority of her time was playing from Aus and our entire Aus guild will be moving.

Then just follow Aurojin's quote and you should be fine

Stephen... before launch we NEED to know some answers to these questions as they will directly affect our decisions and actions:

1) Will our character names be reserved? Do we need to rush onto the server and create a bunch of level 1 characters to preserve the names we have already on our US launch servers? And just as importantly... will creating lvl1 characters with the intention of removing them after transfers actually lock out the names so that our pre-mades are blocked from transferring with their names.

2) Will the legacy level and legacy last-name be reserved? Will we transfer with our legacy level intact or will we be starting from level 1

3) There are replies to the EU community regarding a shift in maintenance timing with multiple devs saying "we are looking into this". Will the Asia-Pacific servers also eventually have a designated down time outside prime-time or will it always be linked with the US? (future forecast appreciated)

4) PvP Warzone server cluster matching has been announced as a feature that is being looked at. Will Oceanic servers only be queued with other oceanic servers or will it be a GuildWars style system where your team comes from your server but can verse any team from US/EU

5) When server transfers are opened up for everyone... will Oceanic players be allowed to transfer back to US servers as part of a paid service structure? Or once we have transferred to the new servers those specific characters are now locked to that region?

Im sure there are more questions and many of them will appear in this thread. Please take the time to inform us... I've still got the bitter taste in my mouth from the last launch and I thought Bioware had learned some lessons from past mistakes regarding lack of information.

The Asia-Pacific launch train is almost 12 hours away and may depart the platform without any passengers. Having said that, this train is clearly The Ghan and for us that imported the game ourselves... we wont arrive at our destination for at least 3 days.