A solution for Ragefire and Lockjaw to Merge when the time comes.

Why is anybody afraid of this non-issue? It isn't like a the servers can't be merged. It isn't like this hasn't been done before. If this really becomes the problem of the scope that people are fear-mongering about, the servers will be merged.

Besides, some people will enjoy the lightly populated server (boxers), and those who do not, DBG should make a pay-transfer available that is good only back to Ragefire. Good for players, good for DBG (ie revenue). Choose wisely. ;-)

And don't complain to me about name conflicts if a merge does happen. A name is a name. A change is a change. I had to change my name on a server merge once, despite the toon having been created on Day 1 and had literally hundreds of play days. It happens. It sucks, but the benefits of a healthy populated server far outweigh this minor inconvenience.

Nor does this possible minor inconvenience of having to change a conflicting name outweigh the immediate needs of spreading load due to excessive load.

In summary, I just don't see the issue...

1) There are players who will like the smaller player load, assuming it even exists
2) If it is too low, a merge can be done.
3) There *is* overcrowding today, and a second server *is* needed today

Again, every decision needs to be made based on business need *today*. Not what may or may not happen 6 months from now.

Today, if you don't add a second server, people WILL not renew after 30 days...

That is the business reality.

I wish people would take a common-sense adult view of running an MMO, and stop thinking about themselves and what the position they may or may not be in 6 months down the road.

If DBG/SOE did that, they would have been out of business back when they were still named Verant Interactive...

Not every decision will be good for you or your play style, but you can bet your butt that al attempts will be made to try to make the decisions in the best interest of the majority of players, ie, the greater good. If you don't fall into that demographic, then oh well.

The game still running for most in 2 years is more important than you leaving tomorrow.

It just is.

Oh there is reason to be worried since they have yet to state whether they will allow transfers or merge the servers. If they say no transfer, no merge, then there is much to worry about. It's just too early to worry about it until they say something as long as they say it before the server launches and people start going there.

ITT, doom and gloom

Haha I think it's really funny how people are saying this server is Dead before it's even launched! If you look at the last 2 TLP servers. It wasn't too bad the first time around honestly, then when Fippy/Vulak came out, Vulak had viable raiding for a while before it tapered off. GIGS! Your idea that there won't even be a hardcore guild is insane, I haven't seen a server with more than 100 people on that didn't have a hardcore guild man. We are talking probably 10,000 players for these progression servers, if even 3,000 are on Lockjaw that will be plenty healthy enough to last for a year or two.

I think people are really underestimating the potential these servers have. If project 1999 has taught us anything, if it's done well people will stay in the same content for years! A lot of people on these forums cry about it being 6 months till Kunark. Well it will take a majority 1 - 3 months to get their first 50 (Some after that for sure), then another month or two to gear themselves and get any epic pieces they can before Kunark. Giving most players time to work on alts or tradeskills or farm plat, whatever. EQ is a game that you can always find something to do, unless it's SUPER crowded like it has been the last week.

Kunark offers a lot more space but it really doesn't solve the issues you are thinking. The question is how long will people play on this server. If a new huge MMO comes out, these servers will die anyways. And let's face it, that's going to happen in the next year or two most likely. But these servers will offer a long enough timeline that people can quit for a few months then come back and not miss much (Like on Fippy you might miss 2 or 3 expansions if you took too long of a break).

Think about it, name all the high lvl Kunark zones you can lvl in? Seb, KC, HS? CoM is more like a solb. It really does increase the higher level group content, but honestly there will 1500 lvl 50+'s walking around, even Seb doesn't have that many camps! Kunark is more of expansion that just makes the game bigger, it adds at least 1 dungeon for each lvl range, some 2. But it can still feel overcrowded at times, hopefully instancing will solve that for the most part. Kunark does offer WAY more raiding targets which is very helpful for the health of a server like this. And no matter what server you are on, there will be a hardcore guild owning that content as best it can!

To answer the "they have yet to state whether they will allow transfers," they're taking a wait-and-see approach:

They want the populations to be somewhat balanced, and they'll open transfers to encourage that as necessary.

Yea, they're already selling Character Transfer Tokens on Ragefire - I'm completely terrified of spending $25 (x2 at least for the wife as well - maybe x6 if I've got all the alts we're planning going well enough I'd bother) if I feel like the server becomes too quiet for my tastes.

Wait, no I'm not - that's a minor sacrifice (even at x6)... I guess I'm not worried with that possibility at all.

Not that it seems likely, since they've stated OFFICIALLY that they'll be trying to use transfers to keep the population level.

Even last night with roughly 2/3 of my guild taking time off since the entire guild is planning to move (and other guilds like TFD planning similarly - as well as a "300 man guild" mentioned on the boards considering it supposedly [unsure what guild it is though]) I still hit a 30 min queue when it was past midnight in half of the US - on a work night.

Not to mention I've played on Sleeper and Vulak both previously - guess how dead those servers were in Kunark? Survey says - Not remotely dead or wanting for groups. Precedent says that around the 1.5 year mark and/or late PoP is really when the first population slump hits (depending if you attribute it to time or expansion).

I know that, hence all the posts about it, saying shouldn't worry until they do post it or if the server launches before they post it.

I think the servers will have life for a while. If kunark comes out early it will last even longer. Im cautious on weither DBG will merge, which brings me to the point why havent the normal non TLP servers not been merged yet? Quite a few of them are sitting on low for a long time now. This gives the impression they arent into server mergers and i think it gets people worried. I could be wrong, too early to panic and jump to conclusions

They did already state about allowing Transfers and Merging servers, just nothing official because it's a Fluid situation. Which I honestly would rather it be Fluid than a written in stone this is how it's going to be way, because then if the situation changes, there is no change in policy, only more complainers.

Transfers will happen on Lockjaw, it will just not happen right off the bat. I would assume in the first month or so they will let it happen, depending on the population of course. If it evens out 60% on Ragefire and 40% on Lockjaw, you won't see a merge for a while. But if it's 80% on Rage, 20% on Lockjaw, they will let free transfers happen from Rage to Lockjaw.

This is all about business and I completely agree with TarewMarrForever. Most of us have played this game long enough to know it is a business and they make decisions based on that fact. I box multiple accounts but damn wouldn't it be nice to not see 6 -box teams of mages walking around, but that's what happens when multiple companies code on a 16 year old game (And to be fair they started creating this game back in like 1995! I played Beta in 1998 and I know they had been in various stages of development for a few years at that point). Some things will take way too much work to reverse engineer or fix or whatever. 20 years ago is a long time to go back and try and recapture what someone else created. Find any great piece of art and try and replicate it, it's really really hard to do!

I for one am happy we have these servers and can't wait for Lockjaw! I will play on both servers and feel out how it goes. This is a marathon and not a sprint, so tie up your shoes and stop complaining cause your 40-yard dash time wasn't fast enough and start worrying about your first mile (The first expansion)

It's a problem because the servers can not be merged, they've even stated that it's not an easy thing for TLP servers to be merged, people had the same mindset you had with vulak, it has yet to be merged and only until the last year or so where the people on vulak even allowed to transfer off. Vulak was dying in velious and that was with a 2-3 month timer. Lockjaw will be dead even sooner due to how much later it is taken to be released, vulak came out the next day after fippy opened so people still getting in had an option, now I'd say most people are already on ragefire and we have no idea how many are going to start all over. I hope I'm wrong about this, but history has shown that a second tlp is not a good thing. I'd rather deal with a que for a bit than have no one on a server a few months down the road

Then that is good news, no need to worry then. I agree it needs to be fluid to allow the server to function on it's own as long as it can.

Also someone did a strawpoll of the forums (which will be inherently flawed to a degree being a voluntary internet poll) - that showed 59% had interest in playing on Lockjaw (51% as their only server, 8% doing both).

Assuming that strawpoll has complete accuracy (which is optimistic as I said above) - Ragefire will be the low pop server.

Which actually seems plausible, since people are fed up with a list of things that have stigmatized Ragefire that won't poison the beginnings of Lockjaw:
1) Queues
2) Box armies (some won't want to reroll - and the ones that do reroll will be easier to avoid thanks to greater instancing starting today)
3) Insane levels of drama (again diminished by greater instancing)

You only get a first chance to make a good first impression - which has no doubt poisoned the well with Ragefire to some. I've got friends that have daily playtime around 2-3 hrs that are literally still L1-4 range because of the queue issues alone - because 30 min of play when they can only do primetime only goes so far.

FFS if they plan ahead which is what they are dong they can be merged. Combine/Sleeper were both merged fine. Vulak was created as a reaction to an overpopulated Fippy and the coding between the two servers were incompatible to merge them. They allowed transfers from Vulak to Fippy but not everyone took it, then they just stopped offering them.

That problem no longer really exists from a player standpoint - they fixed Character Transfer Tokens to allow TLP -> TLP a long time ago.

It's only a DBG problem when almost everyone has left a server and it should be merged so they can save $ on hardware. It's not a problem for we players AT ALL.

They stopped offering Free ones - they're still quite available if you pay $25 (I missed the boat myself by a few weeks on mine)

Ah thank you, didn't know they were still available.

They can merge the servers if the servers are at the same expansion. They can easily hold them at the same point, to make sure they progress together. History has shown that this is the better way to go.

So, the absence of an affirmation of a plan *today* to address a problem that does not *yet* exist and may not 9+ months down the road worries you?

I guess you have to be a worry-wart. ;-)

I tend to worry about more important things, like the fact that I can't login at night and play on Ragefire. You know,the kinds of things that could cost DBG tens of thousands of dollars next month.

Fortunately, DBG does as well.

One problem at a time folks. You are stuck in analysis-paralysis. There is clearly only ONE solution today: a new server.

Will that create problems down the road? Perhaps. They will be addressed down the road.

Just because they are not sharing their plan to address these potential problems does not mean they do not have one. And even if they do, they should never share them, because the future is impossible to predict. The conditions and circumstances of the problem may manifest itself differently, requiring a different decision at that time. If they tell you their plans now, somebody will gripe 9 months from now when they do something differently. It happens *every* *time* in this business. You hold your cards close.

This clearly won't be a problem while in the 6 months progression window. I agree, it could become a problem during the 3 months progression cycle. If Ragefire is ever on the verge of jumping +2 beyond Lockjaw, and Lockjaw simply doesn't have the numbers or power guilds to get it done, I have no doubt that at that time they will merge the servers, because it will be the right thing to do.

Or, if Ragefire pop is way ahead of Lockjaw, when Ragefire is about to go +1 over Lockjaw, and the vote passes, and Lockjaw isn't looking good, they could offer all Ragefire players a free transfer token to Lockjaw, to be used before the next expansion opens (obviously you can't do it afterwards).

The bottom line: they have a lot of tools to address this. Don't let it worry you now. These potential issues should absolutely in no way affect their decision today about a second server, nor do I think you should let it affect rerolling on Lockjaw, or transferring in a few weeks when it opens up (which Holly has confirmed).

Has anyone stopped to even consider there are some players that would welcome a so called dead (low population) server? I know I would prefer it over the current population of Ragefire. I already have a group of friends I am playing with and thus a set group. I am not concerned with being first in anything during my play time. Been there done that 15 years ago and have no aspirations of doing that again playing 15+ hours a day just to stay on top in current content of that time. I just want to play with my friends and have fun and get what I get as far as loot goes. I didn't come into this server with all these visions of grandeur that I was going to be first at anything. Let's be honest if you didn't know you were going to down these raid targets first, then most likely you weren't going to be the one to down these targets first.

Well, it was easy to miss because its the same old item that existed to transfer from TLP to the Live servers - they just added a "This can only be used to transfer to Combine and Vulak from the other - other servers cannot transfer to these servers" or some similar blurb.

So it never showed as a new item in the MP. And apparently when they were offered for free it was by the token as well, just it was discounted on Vulak to 0.