http://www.swtor.com/blog/character-transfer-server-populations-and-you
(Cannot paste the whole thing right now, as I'm on the phone on a train somewhere in the middle of Poland :P)
[h=2]Character Transfer, Server Populations and You[/h] 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.
[h=3]How will it work?[/h] 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).
[h=3]The next step[/h] 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 www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com (http://www.swtor.com) for more details!
[h=3]Summary[/h] 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 Warsâ,,¢: The Old Republicâ,,¢.
The Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Team
Video interview with James Ohlen:
http://t.co/H7d1gxri
Sent from my HTC Desire Z
A compilation of questions and answers from the Community Team on this topic can be found below:
General
Quote: Originally Posted by Alxandria (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4555643#post4555643)
I have a question:
How will we be affected (if any) if say we are on an origin server, but have no desire to move, either because we like small servers, or we just don't want to deal with the xfer process?
Quote: Originally Posted by AllisonBerryman (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4555662#post4555662)
You are not required to move when transfers become available; it's your choice if you'd like to stay on your server.
----Quote: Originally Posted by joeypesci (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4566481#post4566481)
My question is, can all of my 8 characters that are on one server move or only one of them?
Quote: Originally Posted by AllisonBerryman (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4568002#post4568002)
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.
-----Quote: Originally Posted by Rogoo (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4564628#post4564628)
Joveth, what is the plan for RP servers ?
Will we be allowed transfers from RP-PvP to PvP servers ?
Quote: Originally Posted by JovethGonzalez (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4565734#post4565734)
Hi Rogoo,
As mentioned in the blog post, we will be maintaining server types. So it will be RP-PvP to RP-PvP.
-----Quote: Originally Posted by islander (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4555636#post4555636)
OK, I see one big, big problem. Let me quote the article:
"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."
What I interpret this to mean, is there's no guarantee my guildmates will end up transfered to the same server as me (I'm the GM of a guild on Kinrath Spider)
I'd love to get clarification on this
Quote: Originally Posted by AllisonBerryman (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4557329#post4557329)
It looks like this line is causing a little bit of confusion. Hopefully I can help clear that up! 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.
GuildsQuote: Originally Posted by Keypek (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4555504#post4555504)
This is a good thing definitely. Only problem I foresee is that a guild of people who want to stay together happens to be on one of the origin servers. They allow us to move to a destination server for a day... two days... a week... whatever their timeframe is. But then that opportunity is limited in time and/or the destination server changes suddenly without warning and we still have half of our guild trying to transfer off the origin server or we have a couple integral members on vacation for the week and completely miss being able to transfer. Suddenly we either have to choose to keep the whole guild on a suddenly dead server or screw over a chunk of our guild members and leave without warning to them.
Like I said this transfer is definitely a very good thing and happy it is sooner then later. But not having some sort of guild transfer function could be problematic.
Quote: Originally Posted by JovethGonzalez (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4557046#post4557046)
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 www.swtor.com/transfer (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.
We hope that this clarifies any confusion.
----Quote: Originally Posted by Ramladon (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4564102#post4564102)
The only question/suggestion that I have Is why doesn't the guild bank move with the guild leader when they transfer? GM has unlimited access anyway, so if they wanted to ninja it they could anyway. I don't understand the reasoning behind needing to put a ticket in for the guild bank.
Also do we need to move all items out of the guild bank before the move and the ticket will only revive the slots the guild has purchased or will the ticket move all items and money from one guild bank to the new server?
Quote: Originally Posted by JovethGonzalez (http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/coruscant/main/forums/icons/arrow_right.png) (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4569281#post4569281)
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.
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Twitter is confirming that transfers are live today, hopefully when the servers come back up.
Here's to hoping that Hydian Way is a destination server!
Yeah, 1 hour to go... :g:
http://www.swtor.com/transfer
a bit short list, but anyways, we're not there. I mean it's not split up between origin/destination, so dont know what to think of it.
Edit: ah, it's in big white bolded font, that's why i've missed it. It's the Origin list :)
OK, so you transfer from server A to server B. You don't get to chose server B, it's based directly on server A.
The destination servers are currently the most populated and as you guessed, the origin servers are least populated.
My guess is that every week or so more origin servers will be added but the destination servers will stay the same, bringing about these "mega servers" which have been rumored.
Yeah, that's correct.
Also, as they're reffering to the updates on transfers as "coming days" not next week, which is kind of nice too.