SWTOR has posted some information on the server tranfers they plan on implenting next week. http://www.swtor.com/blog/character-transfer-server-populations-and-you.   I feel that some of thier notions are cause for concern 1-1 trasfer ratio meaning one orgin serve will be matched up to one destiantion server meaning it will be highly unlikey to get your characters all on one sever without latter having to pay for it. Addtionally these severs are pre-seleted so those who re-rolled on higer population servers might find themselfs dissapointed yet again that they cant get thier characters on the server they are now on. 

These notions seem to downplay thier much "hyped" legacy system as it segergates players characters and mocks their time investment. I truly hope they reconsider thier methods. 

Originally posted by DariusGear

SWTOR has posted some information on the server tranfers they plan on implenting next week. http://www.swtor.com/blog/character-transfer-server-populations-and-you.   I feel that some of thier notions are cause for concern 1-1 trasfer ratio meaning one orgin serve will be matched up to one destiantion server meaning it will be highly unlikey to get your characters all on one sever without latter having to pay for it. Addtionally these severs are pre-seleted so those who re-rolled on higer population servers might find themselfs dissapointed yet again that they cant get thier characters on the server they are now on. 

These notions seem to downplay thier much "hyped" legacy system as it segergates players characters and mocks their time investment. I truly hope they reconsider thier methods. 

Also the form posts for this provide some minior entertainment.

Hmm.. First, you are incorrect about how transfers will go.  It will not be 1-1 source-destination, it will be many-one.  Multiple low pop servers given the option to xfer to a single server.

As for people who have, against the device of the development team, already abandoned characters on a lower population server to reroll on a server that currently has more users..  Correct, there is a rather large chance that they will have to pay to move their other characters at a later point in time, simply because it is highly unlikely that any of the currently higher population servers will ever be a destination server for free transfers.  To those people, I offer them the sound of the worlds smallest violin playing my heart bleeds for you.  No sympathy for the impatient, sorry.

Originally posted by Mishakai

Hmm.. First, you are incorrect about how transfers will go.  It will not be 1-1 source-destination, it will be many-one.  Multiple low pop servers given the option to xfer to a single server.

As for people who have, against the device of the development team, already abandoned characters on a lower population server to reroll on a server that currently has more users..  Correct, there is a rather large chance that they will have to pay to move their other characters at a later point in time, simply because it is highly unlikely that any of the currently higher population servers will ever be a destination server for free transfers.  To those people, I offer them the sound of the worlds smallest violin playing my heart bleeds for you.  No sympathy for the impatient, sorry.

You are correct i misread but some people do have charcters on two or more low population severs so there is still no gurantee they can get them all on one server unfortunatly. 

Yes, this won't be a vehicle for merging characters/legacies on two separate servers unless you get hit by blind luck.

To me it is funny how they aren't admitting that they are "merging servers" - they're keeping low pop ones running, even after these transfer waves hit them... it's gotta cost them $ to do that, especially since their active player count is going to be very very low...  And it's gotta be a bad situation to have new players picking one of the dead servers because they like the names. 

i am very interested on how the server transfers will pan out for SWTOR.

I really enjoyed the game when it first came out but the low pop servers really killed it for me.

" 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

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"

From the sound of it, if you are in a guild it will be split up in the move and you dont have a decent chance of getting on the same server as your guild mates who you may have spent playing with since day 1, well that seems to suck badly

Originally posted by JorgeElGuapo

i am very interested on how the server transfers will pan out for SWTOR.

I really enjoyed the game when it first came out but the low pop servers really killed it for me.

Lot of people stop playing because of that, after the news of the merge next week, people is coming back to the game again. 

Why do I get the feeling that Origin servers=getting closed down the road.

Originally posted by Eletheryl

Originally posted by JorgeElGuapo

i am very interested on how the server transfers will pan out for SWTOR.

I really enjoyed the game when it first came out but the low pop servers really killed it for me.

Lot of people stop playing because of that, after the news of the merge next week, people is coming back to the game again. 

 yup and I will most likely be one of those people

Originally posted by knighthammer

" 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

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"

From the sound of it, if you are in a guild it will be split up in the move and you dont have a decent chance of getting on the same server as your guild mates who you may have spent playing with since day 1, well that seems to suck badly

It does suck that they're not offering guild transfers, but if you're all on the same server anyway, wouldn't you all have the option to move to one server only? That would make it a bit easier....but still far from ideal. I really wouldn't want to be a guild leader trying to organise a guild move, strikes me as being about as easy as herding cats. 

I hope that's something they'll address further down the line. 

Originally posted by Fennris

Yes, this won't be a vehicle for merging characters/legacies on two separate servers unless you get hit by blind luck.

To me it is funny how they aren't admitting that they are "merging servers" - they're keeping low pop ones running, even after these transfer waves hit them... it's gotta cost them $ to do that, especially since their active player count is going to be very very low...  And it's gotta be a bad situation to have new players picking one of the dead servers because they like the names. 

Well, I don't quite agree with the "blind luck" bit I'm sure they are - at least over time - spreading the origin-destination range.

Which makes perfect sense as doing this without the right consideration will easily lead to high Imp pop servers which will then of course just start the next crying wave.

Anyways, if your multiple origin servers don't share the same destination server, well, give it a bit of time! It might change... and more importantly - obviously - in the first few days everybody and their grandma will rush to transfer, which, as was said, will take time.

Now, new players selecting low pop servers... am I wrong or did you just call gamers (in general) dumb?

"Tehe, look, this server, like, has such a cute name, like, you know, and I'm sure Justin Bieber would, like, totally love that name, tehe, so, yeah, like, we should totally join that one... though, I don't really understand what that "light population" means... like there are no coloured people on there? Tehe"

I mean I'm sorry but I assume that ANY gamer is mentally capable enough to make the decision whether he wants to play on a "healthy" server or on a "dying" server.

This all seems kind of sub-par to me. Unless they plan on improving it in the future in some way. For instance, allow moves from any low-pop server to any mid-pop server. Allow moves from any high-pop server to any low-pop server. Who am I kidding. They should really just allow free reign. Let anyone transfer anywhere. Possibly limit the PvE to PvP transfers, but even there, what's the big deal.

The guild thing is kind of lame though. You should be able to move your guild to another server, with each player getting a notice when they login - they can choose to move or stay.

Originally posted by knighthammer

" 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

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"

From the sound of it, if you are in a guild it will be split up in the move and you dont have a decent chance of getting on the same server as your guild mates who you may have spent playing with since day 1, well that seems to suck badly

Basically, I don't think that is true, I think it's just down to the coordination of the gamers on their end.

Obviously, we are talking all the same origin server and same destination server, so that shouldn't be a problem in the selection process.

Now, I assume there might be warning flags coming up when due to the transfers an extreme population shift was to happen e.g. a sort of balanced server suddenly going strong on Imp.

But, I'd assume if a) you queue all your guild's characters as early as possible and b) your guild is not destined to tip the balance i.e. pure Imp guild, 50 members, each with 8 Imp characters, that there shouldn't be a problem.

Of course, if you have people dragging their feet, well, yeah, it may be that the destination server will be taken out of the selection range due to the new population status...

I think it comes down to educate yourself, and then follow the "first come, first serve(re)d" system...

Originally posted by Ryukan

Why do I get the feeling that Origin servers=getting closed down the road.

Probably not closed down, rather archieved. DAoC has the same with their current public servers and their old archieved servers.

But here is a dumb question: if due to transfers the population on an origin server were to dwindle to maybe 10 (pretty much inactive) characters, why wouldn't they close down the server?

Originally posted by lizardbones

This all seems kind of sub-par to me. Unless they plan on improving it in the future in some way. For instance, allow moves from any low-pop server to any mid-pop server. Allow moves from any high-pop server to any low-pop server. Who am I kidding. They should really just allow free reign. Let anyone transfer anywhere. Possibly limit the PvE to PvP transfers, but even there, what's the big deal.

The guild thing is kind of lame though. You should be able to move your guild to another server, with each player getting a notice when they login - they can choose to move or stay.

I really can't believe you wrote that!

You know what the result would be, right? Everybody flooding heavy pop servers and in turn long hours of waiting to log in due to big queues... *rolls eyes*

And let's not forget that a fairly balanced server may suddenly extreme Rep or extreme Imp... ever considered that? Jeeez....

To be honest, I think it's a guild leader's job to co-ordinate the mass-transfer, afterall the guild is not under BW's control but rather something that the players have created themselves. If he can't handle it, maybe it's time to get a new guild leader?

What happens if your character name on the target server is already taken?  Does that mean that character is stuck on a server that everyone else abandons?  Or can there be multiple characters on the same server with exactly the same name?

What if you quit the game a month ago, and come back a few months from now, after the server transfers are over?  Does missing the transfer period mean that you're stuck on a now dead server forever?

On the one hand, those sound like rather dumb questions that they've surely considered.  On the other, if they had carefully considered the situation ahead of time, trying to create a new server transfer system now wouldn't be necessary.  I get the feeling that the server transfer situation could end up being scandalously awful in ways that are amusing to people who don't play the game.

Merging servers is exactly what is needed.

If it was my call, I would do away with about 55% of total servers, and go from there.

All the merges are doing is correcting the mistake BW made in the first place. They never should of launched with such low thresholds for servers. If they were intending on raising caps so quickly, they never should of launched so many servers to begin with.

You can give folks all the content in the MMO world, but if no one is around it wont matter....it will cause folks to leave.

I look forward to seeing what effect this n the new content have on PVE subs. I feel the PVP oriented gamers are now a lost cause, but then again that is my opinion.

Originally posted by Quizzical

What happens if your character name on the target server is already taken?  Does that mean that character is stuck on a server that everyone else abandons?  Or can there be multiple characters on the same server with exactly the same name?

What if you quit the game a month ago, and come back a few months from now, after the server transfers are over?  Does missing the transfer period mean that you're stuck on a now dead server forever?

On the one hand, those sound like rather dumb questions that they've surely considered.  On the other, if they had carefully considered the situation ahead of time, trying to create a new server transfer system now wouldn't be necessary.  I get the feeling that the server transfer situation could end up being scandalously awful in ways that are amusing to people who don't play the game.

It might cause folks issues, but if it does, I wont be one of them.

I have limited my play time the last few months for a reason, but the merging figured into it as well. I was worried the Legacy stuff wouldnt transfer. What is gonna bite is if you lose your character names. Last names dont concern me so much.

Cliff notes version of this:

They are merging servers.

You do not get to pick your destination server.  

If you and your friends are all on the same server, youll still be on the same server.  If you and your friends are on different servers there is no guarantee you will be placed together.

Guilds will need to be reformed

Its not the perfect way of doing this, but it is the standard way, just overly wordy