Posted today by Famine, fresh from the official AoC boards.

***************************************************

Server Merge Information

As announced a few weeks ago, we will merge the Age of Conan servers before the Christmas Holidays. Today we want to give you some detailed information about how these merges will happen and what this will mean for you, the players.

We will be spreading the server merges over the next few weeks so not all the servers will be merged at the exact same time. It is important to us to ensure that the merge process goes as smooth as possible. Therefore it is vital that we spread out the work rather than doing these complicated processes all at the same time in order to minimize possible risks.

The first servers that will be merged are the US servers ‘Bloodspire’ and ‘Hyperborea’. The list of servers for the next merges will be published shortly.

It is important to know that during the time servers will be merged, all servers of the same territory (US or EU) will not be available. This means that during this week's downtime - where the two above mentioned servers are merged - all US servers will be unavailable. The exact duration of such a downtime will be announced soon but we do expect them to be longer than the usual update downtime.

When the merge process is complete we will be giving all active subscribers an appropriate amount of free game-time to compensate for the additional downtime required for the merges. The details of this will be communicated once the merge process is complete.

It’s important for us to ensure the best game-play experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future.

Once the merges are complete we will be offering a free one-use character transfer option for all characters so that if you wish to join a different community after the merge than the one you were allocated you are free to do so. This transfer will be free of charge and can be used once per character and will be available from your billing pages.

Also after the merges are complete we will be opening up new ‘fresh start’ servers in both the US and EU territories. One each for PVE and PVP rulesets. Transfer will not be allowed to these servers after the merges. These new servers are designed to allow players to start afresh in a totally new environment should they wish to do so and forge a new community instead of joining one of the newly merged ones.

We wanted to post this announcement with a server merge FAQ but we will aim for tomorrow instead. We saw no point in holding back the bulk of the announcement just on that minor issue.

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forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php

I particularly like that free transfer they tossed in there. A free transfer thats just going to sit on my account to use whenever I want to. Great Stuff.

Omg, this is great news.

so they are only announcing the merger of 1 server with another server?

I'm not being mean, but I was thinking they would be knocking it down to 8-10 servers in NA at the most, probably 6-8.

Cutting the number of servers in half is really not going to do much IMHO.  You could literally merge the least 10 populated servers into 1 server and it still wouldn't be very populated.

Originally posted by Azrile

so they are only announcing the merger of 1 server with another server?

I'm not being mean, but I was thinking they would be knocking it down to 8-10 servers in NA at the most, probably 6-8.

Cutting the number of servers in half is really not going to do much IMHO.  You could literally merge the least 10 populated servers into 1 server and it still wouldn't be very populated.

The first servers that will be merged are the US servers ‘Bloodspire’ and ‘Hyperborea’. The list of servers for the next merges will be published shortly.

 ----------

As they write , its only the first merger , more to come shortly( as in the next couple of weeks )

"This means that during this week's downtime - where the two above mentioned servers are merged - all US servers will be unavailable."

What does this mean? Are they going to merge 2 servers each week during a longer than usual downtime during which ALL the servers are down? Sounds strange. It could mean that the merges take a long time and there will a lot of downtime in the next few weeks. Glad I quit, I hate downtime.

That sounds odd.  Why not Hyperborea and Cimmeria?

In any event, it's about time.

Originally posted by Transporter

Posted today by Famine, fresh from the official AoC boards.

***************************************************

Server Merge Information

As announced a few weeks ago, we will merge the Age of Conan servers before the Christmas Holidays. Today we want to give you some detailed information about how these merges will happen and what this will mean for you, the players.

We will be spreading the server merges over the next few weeks so not all the servers will be merged at the exact same time. It is important to us to ensure that the merge process goes as smooth as possible. Therefore it is vital that we spread out the work rather than doing these complicated processes all at the same time in order to minimize possible risks.

The first servers that will be merged are the US servers ‘Bloodspire’ and ‘Hyperborea’. The list of servers for the next merges will be published shortly.

It is important to know that during the time servers will be merged, all servers of the same territory (US or EU) will not be available. This means that during this week's downtime - where the two above mentioned servers are merged - all US servers will be unavailable. The exact duration of such a downtime will be announced soon but we do expect them to be longer than the usual update downtime.

When the merge process is complete we will be giving all active subscribers an appropriate amount of free game-time to compensate for the additional downtime required for the merges. The details of this will be communicated once the merge process is complete.

It’s important for us to ensure the best game-play experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future.

Once the merges are complete we will be offering a free one-use character transfer option for all characters so that if you wish to join a different community after the merge than the one you were allocated you are free to do so. This transfer will be free of charge and can be used once per character and will be available from your billing pages.

Also after the merges are complete we will be opening up new ‘fresh start’ servers in both the US and EU territories. One each for PVE and PVP rulesets. Transfer will not be allowed to these servers after the merges. These new servers are designed to allow players to start afresh in a totally new environment should they wish to do so and forge a new community instead of joining one of the newly merged ones.

We wanted to post this announcement with a server merge FAQ but we will aim for tomorrow instead. We saw no point in holding back the bulk of the announcement just on that minor issue.

***********************************************************

forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php

I particularly like that free transfer they tossed in there. A free transfer thats just going to sit on my account to use whenever I want to. Great Stuff.

Thoroughly appreciated.

 Oh, the end is nigh.

 very good news, although they seem to be taking a painfully slow root.

anyway once they are merged and servers are populated thats 1 step further to me coming back.

Originally posted by Transporter

Posted today by Famine, fresh from the official AoC boards.

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Also after the merges are complete we will be opening up new ‘fresh start’ servers in both the US and EU territories. One each for PVE and PVP rulesets. Transfer will not be allowed to these servers after the merges. These new servers are designed to allow players to start afresh in a totally new environment should they wish to do so and forge a new community instead of joining one of the newly merged ones.

***********************************************************

To me this is the best part of this announcement. Giving players a chance to start on a server that has not been "tainted" by all the previous exploits is a very good idea.

If they also keep them free from playing staffmembers they would actually be a reason to give AoC another try.

Originally posted by GiveMePvP

"This means that during this week's downtime - where the two above mentioned servers are merged - all US servers will be unavailable."

What does this mean? Are they going to merge 2 servers each week during a longer than usual downtime during which ALL the servers are down? Sounds strange. It could mean that the merges take a long time and there will a lot of downtime in the next few weeks. Glad I quit, I hate downtime.

i agree, that sounds very odd, and sounds like a lot of downtime

Originally posted by Halandir

Originally posted by Transporter

Posted today by Famine, fresh from the official AoC boards.

***************************************************

Also after the merges are complete we will be opening up new ‘fresh start’ servers in both the US and EU territories. One each for PVE and PVP rulesets. Transfer will not be allowed to these servers after the merges. These new servers are designed to allow players to start afresh in a totally new environment should they wish to do so and forge a new community instead of joining one of the newly merged ones.

***********************************************************

 

To me this is the best part of this announcement. Giving players a chance to start on a server that has not been "tainted" by all the previous exploits is a very good idea.

If they also keep them free from playing staffmembers they would actually be a reason to give AoC another try.

 

 that reminds of of the horny GM episode....

Originally posted by miagisan

Originally posted by GiveMePvP

"This means that during this week's downtime - where the two above mentioned servers are merged - all US servers will be unavailable."

What does this mean? Are they going to merge 2 servers each week during a longer than usual downtime during which ALL the servers are down? Sounds strange. It could mean that the merges take a long time and there will a lot of downtime in the next few weeks. Glad I quit, I hate downtime.

 

i agree, that sounds very odd, and sounds like a lot of downtime

I honestly don't understand it.  Its been fairly common to have a certain number of servers share a database server.  So I would understand the other servers on that 'cluster" (or whatever term floats your boat) being down...

It just seems strange indeed that every server in a given location has to go down to merge two.

Maybe they all share one database server and that's why the lag was so bad at times...

Originally posted by Rohn

That sounds odd.  Why not Hyperborea and Cimmeria?

In any event, it's about time.

They never said that these servers are merging into each other.

Originally posted by xpiher

Originally posted by Rohn

That sounds odd.  Why not Hyperborea and Cimmeria?

In any event, it's about time.

 

They never said that these servers are merging into each other.

I know - they never said much of anything.  Just seemed that it would make sense to merge the two RP-PvP servers into one, instead of an RP-PvP server with a regular PvP server.

I found out that the reason is that they are both Oceanic servers.

I'd imagine they are both really small pops, so less people to piss off when they inevitable screwup occurs.  Good test cases.

Originally posted by Rohn

Originally posted by xpiher

Originally posted by Rohn

That sounds odd.  Why not Hyperborea and Cimmeria?

In any event, it's about time.

 

They never said that these servers are merging into each other.

 

I know - they never said much of anything.  Just seemed that it would make sense to merge the two RP-PvP servers into one, instead of an RP-PvP server with a regular PvP server.

I found out that the reason is that they are both Oceanic servers.

I'd imagine they are both really small pops, so less people to piss off when they inevitable screwup occurs.  Good test cases.

And with a free character transfer with probably a compensation for entire guilds it won't even be an issue.

Yeah, good news. It's about time

Originally posted by Consensus

 very good news, although they seem to be taking a painfully slow root.

anyway once they are merged and servers are populated thats 1 step further to me coming back.

So long as it is done right, i am happy for the people which it will benefit.

• Free compensation for those effected in game time
• Acknowledgement of healthy pop = healthy community
• Free transfer off merged server if wishes to do so.
• Creation of new 'fresh' servers (1 PvP and 1 PvE) to move to to create new community.

Seems like they got it covered from a lot of angles.

It's a shame people can't moan about being charged to x-fer now and a shame they can't come back and post things looking to be handled well so far. (not you mate)

Famine did a good update to keep us in the loop too:

RECAP
(Questions answered in the thread in relation to the above announcement)

Sorry for the delay. I did have to drive home! Here is a quick recap:

• Questions on battlekeeps, names, and ect will be covered tomorrow in the FAQ hopefully.
• We will have to pull all the US servers down to do this small merge.
• There is no official ETA on the downtime but the going rate thus far is 5-6 hours. More information on that soonish.
• We are still aiming to come up after the first merge. Future merges will happen shortly after but hopefully at a faster rate.
• The first set of merges are Oceanic servers and thus the two Oceanic servers are being merged.

"These are answers to questions not posed in the FAQ for tomorrow. Please try to keep everything civil as I know not everyone will agree with the merges. I will try to address all concerns as much as I can throughout the entire process so please be patient. Even though I know it's hard! It's a very exciting time for everyone and it's the best time for us to be as informative as we can at the right time."

I still can't find my guardian pants ;) but this is a really good move.

Keep it going in this direction and I will be back.

I have a pair of pants,buut not for Guardian.

Battlekeep ownership is probably getting wiped.  That's awesome.

Glad to see they are going to make their timeline and get the merges done before christmas thats very good news.

As for the rest of it I have very deep concerns about their choices but I'll wait for their faq so we can see exactly what is happening.

If they are going to merge down to about 12-13 servers then open a new PVE and PVP server taking it to 14-15 then the pops are going to still suck, they are going to be around August levels and people were quiting then due to lack of pop.

While the 2 they are mergeing are oceanic servers they arn't real oceanic servers so there is no reason not to merge US servers with them. In fact a 3US + 2Oceanic merge would make a great server. Lively 24 hours a day.

I just hope the next batch is 4 or 5 servers into one not another 2 server merge both for pop reasons and for the fact that 12 6 hour server downtimes between now and christmas would suck.

Yes this is great news !

Originally posted by noggy1980

Glad to see they are going to make their timeline and get the merges done before christmas thats very good news.

As for the rest of it I have very deep concerns about their choices but I'll wait for their faq so we can see exactly what is happening.

If they are going to merge down to about 12-13 servers then open a new PVE and PVP server taking it to 14-15 then the pops are going to still suck, they are going to be around August levels and people were quiting then due to lack of pop.

While the 2 they are mergeing are oceanic servers they arn't real oceanic servers so there is no reason not to merge US servers with them. In fact a 3US + 2Oceanic merge would make a great server. Lively 24 hours a day.

I just hope the next batch is 4 or 5 servers into one not another 2 server merge both for pop reasons and for the fact that 12 6 hour server downtimes between now and christmas would suck.

Like I expected they are doing very modest server merges. They just merge a couple of servers here and there so that they can say: "We have merge the servers! Come back to play!".

There is no way they will merge 4 or 5 servers into one which is a shame really.

Originally posted by GiveMePvP

Originally posted by noggy1980

Glad to see they are going to make their timeline and get the merges done before christmas thats very good news.

As for the rest of it I have very deep concerns about their choices but I'll wait for their faq so we can see exactly what is happening.

If they are going to merge down to about 12-13 servers then open a new PVE and PVP server taking it to 14-15 then the pops are going to still suck, they are going to be around August levels and people were quiting then due to lack of pop.

While the 2 they are mergeing are oceanic servers they arn't real oceanic servers so there is no reason not to merge US servers with them. In fact a 3US + 2Oceanic merge would make a great server. Lively 24 hours a day.

I just hope the next batch is 4 or 5 servers into one not another 2 server merge both for pop reasons and for the fact that 12 6 hour server downtimes between now and christmas would suck.

 

Like I expected they are doing very modest server merges. They just merge a couple of servers here and there so that they can say: "We have merge the servers! Come back to play!".

There is no way they will merge 4 or 5 servers into one which is a shame really.

Honestly they are completly foolish if they do modest server merges, it's the worst of both worlds, they still get the bad publicity from doing server merges without bringing the populations up to viable levels.