I have been asking questions about the merger but not getting DEV answers...only other players bothered to explain their interpretation of what they heard. Could a dev please come clear this up for me? 1. How will we be able to retain names if others merging with our server have the same name? Let's say I have a toon that has been played for 22 days and his name is the same as a toon merging with my server. The other toon with my chosen name has been played 45 days but is 18 levels lower than mine in adventure levels but like 30 levels higher in tradeskill levels. Who gets the name? 2. Should I be emptying my guild hall office so I don't lose the furniture I crafted and placed there? Please, Devs, answer these questions. All of the conflicting answers from other players just make this process more traumatic to me.
There still is no official process on naming, originally they said it would be first in best dressed type situation but the community didn't accept that to well so I think they're still looking into the possible progresses for that. There are just so many possibilities they could base it on, playtime, level, last logged in, date created etc etc.
I don't think they have enough GMs left to handle the strain of that, though, is the point. There's likely no automated system in place, or even one that could be programmed, that could accurately make those kinds of calls. This will require human intervention, and lots of it! TLDR: We're screwed.
In order of date created. Anyone with matching names gets a permanent suffix "First of His Name", "Second of Her Name", and so forth?
This is ridiculous. I can't tell who had the name first, me or the other person. Also, I can't save the layout of my homes. My husband tells me that the reason I can't save the layout is because I am only allowed to save the layout of a certain number of homes and that's it. I have dozens of homes, which he tells me is too many and he said I will not be allowed to save them all. I give up.
From the vote for your server name announcement on the forums: The engineering work for consolidation is still being worked on and we will go into testing in the coming weeks. Part of our diligence is around ensuring all your houses, dungeons, guilds, and all your “stuff” goes with you. We will also add titles for players from each server so you can identify your original server if you’d like to!
I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and WAIT for answers from the developers - don't listen to rumors. Don't get upset and worry about some rumor you've heard. I'm fairly certain they are still working it all out, and official announcements will be made. Then you can freak out.
Hopefully Daybreak is coming up with a fairer alternative naming method in between getting everything else ready. They used to prioritize active subscribers first, then if there were two active subbers with the same name, the one with the most /played time got to keep the name. That always seemed pretty fair. I just hope they can do that method with three servers merging into one, and I also hope they can somehow cope with the petitions afterward. If they think the petition madness will be bad doing it this way, just wait til they try the Free For All Name Grabbing Method! It's a downward spiral of doom, that. One guy's name gets stolen, so he's got to pick a random name (inadvertently stealing someone else's name in all likelihood) to even be able to log in....and so the chaos spreads.
Losing your name is not fair in anyway, I'm almost 12 years in and I stand to lose a few. There's no reason they cannot have the title they are creating (I think it was holly who said new titles were coming like 'charactername of Permafrost' etc.) and have an option to hide the titles. They can show up upon inspection to differentiate between duplicate names and when mailing or sending gifts. Easy and fair solution.
I think it's fairly ridiculous that a dev couldn't be bothered to even post they are working on the name issue, given the level of interest expressed on these forums since Tuesday. The lack of communication continues to be shameful in Norrath. I didn't even realize how bad it was until I played other mmos that are actually responsive to their customers.
Sorry but it would really suck big time if I lost the names of my main and alts. There should be a way for us to keep the names of our toons! Please Devs give us some real input on this situation.
The EQ2 team have been doing a better job at communicating lately. But this announcement of a "free for all" over character names has certainly led to a lot of confusion, frustration, and fear. It reminds me of the old SmokeJumper approach -- announce something shocking, sit for 2 weeks while the torches and pitchforks crowd tear up the forums, then backpedal and take a conciliatory approach. SJ used to do that and then say "See? the EQ2 players love us! Look at all this feedback." Never mind that we all felt like we'd been taken for a ride. No. Guild Halls will transfer over.
The people I love are the guides who have to suffer through our endless questions. And the players who meticulously sort through dev responses to try to find answers then pass those solutions on to other players. And Ttobey. He made the duck mount and can do no wrong.
But then again, maybe the devs are kept in some dark dungeon and only allowed out to interact with other people every month or so, then they are herded back and chained to their desks. Perhaps they are only silent because of this.
Creation date means nothing. What if someone was one day behind you, but played hundreds more hours than you did? And what if they also paid a sub for many years longer than you did? Clearly, the people who pay to keep the lights on in EQ2 should have priority over those that don't. As it is, in earlier merges they have prioritized (in order): 1.) Current subscribers first, over non-subscribers then, if both people with the same name are currently subbed, 2.) Whichever character has more total /played time keeps the name. That really seems the fairest; I just hope the devs' current silence on the issue is because they're trying to rework their original free-for-all name-grab idea into something more similar to what they've always done in the past.
I don't like this at all. I go all access sometimes, but others not. I buy a lot of DC. So somebody that make a character this month and subscribes and has spent $15 on the game is going to get my name even though I've been subbing and spending money on the game for the past 7 and a half years? I have over 20k DC why doesn't my money spent mean anything compared to someone who may have just bought a sub for a month. I think it's fairer to go with character age and if someone is forced to have a suffix they're offered a rename token. Maybe in order to free up names for old characters that haven't played in a long time the player should need to have played on the character in the last year. If not then the newer name gets precedence. In all just to say that someone who is a sub gets precedence is a bad idea and devalues DC purchases.
The only problem is that most of us have alts, too. So how would it be fair for our alts to lose their names just because we haven't played them lately? I think what Siren posted is a much better idea. I sub because I want EQ2 to continue on for as long as possible. Anything else I buy in game is just.....well luxuries. Subbing should take precedence over F2P. Just my opinion.
