Server move poll on Antonia Bayle

I transferred from a low population server to AB just a couple months ago, and I honestly have to say my gaming enjoyment has increased x10. I haven't raided in a couple years, groups were hard to come by thus I mostly soloed but since the transfer I never have any issue getting groups and have loads of fun.
I've played EQ2 since 2004 and transferring to AB was a last effort to keep playing EQ2 and it worked. I am having loads of fun again in a very active community. It feels like back in the early years of a bustling community where you can go to any zone in game and there are other characters there questing, harvesting and just having fun. There are even folks hanging out in East Freeport and Qeynos Harbor, Seriously!

Right now, in my opinion, giving us old timers that feeling of nostalgia, not nostalgia in regards to an old zone or quest but the one where no matter where you go there is always something happening, active community nostalgia. chat boxes are steady scrolling. I wish I transferred ages ago. I fought with the fact that I had to leave my fully decked out GH, Alts and add an x to my name like so many others have had issuses with but in all honesty I would change my name to anything knowing now how this would revive my gaming experience.

Honestly, for the heath and of the game, creating higher population servers is the answer, but taking away from AB I think would do far more harm then good. The only thing I think that would work is the server merge method with the open character transfers you did years ago. (X server will merge with Y server on this date but this last week leading into the merge you can transfer your characters free to any server you wish) so people can get their characters and alts together again. I mean personally I can say my alts that I left behind on the low population server are toons that I would log in everyday to craft, quest and TRY to find groups with and now they are never played, whats the sense. I would transfer them but I'm not paying $20+ to do so.

Just an opinion from a loyal player who loves the game and wants to make it even better.

Permafrost was god awful to be on even at the start of ToV - there were maybe 10 active puggers, that's about it. Every group I did consisted of the same ~10 people in various arrangements. Some others who on rare occasion did open groups, but mostly private groups doing SLR junk nothing else. Attritionx went AB, another large group of people went AB, people who were in Prime / Reckoning almost entirely left server... From how Uncle sounded a few weeks ago, it seems like there's no point even trying to pug on Perma anymore.

Then you won't get many people willing to do it. Sorry, but by having a leveling system and guild halls built into your guild system means people grow attached to their guild. I completely understand that you can't force all guild members to move because there are bound to be some in every guild that do not want to do it. However that is your rock and hard place to figure out the solution to. If it's set in stone that you refuse to move guilds, then you wasted your time with this pole I'm afraid.

Why not consolidate some of the other smaller servers in order to lure players from AB...give new players have a more limited choice (say a total of 3 or 4 servers to choose from). Then the trying a new server might seem more attractive eg. you wouldn't be choosing between a highly populated server and a ghost town it would simply be a choice between the highly populated AB server and a less drastic drop to a slightly less populated server. Which hopefully would lessen server strain all around.

I'm thinking that the server combine of other low-population servers would be the best way to go, but if you want people to have a 'draw' to another server, AB is the ONLY Role-Play dedicated server...and has the largest population. What does that say? A big part of EQ's draw has always been the RP community (since EQ1) and the RP sever has always been bursting to the gills. Combine servers and dedicate another RP (or RP/PVP?) server and see if that helps move people. The combo should be something that attracts people....especially the top level toons who have done most everything else if you can RP -and- PVP....? Am I the only one thinking that would be a good option?

Merging the lower pop servers (and allowing guilds to remain intact) really is the only solution here. Why are we even skirting around this issue? Bad PR? That hasn't seemed to matter much here lately anyway and tbh I think most of the people that it affected would actually see it as positive. Moving a handful of people from AB to disperse over a dozen servers seems like a massive waste of resources and time and will eventually have to do the merges anyway. IMHO, do the merges now and save those dying servers before they are completely dead.

1 PVP 1 PVE server sounds good to me

I do think it's a good idea they are doing the in-game poll. So they can get a real picture of what the majority wants.

this would be my idea or at least something in that line why some many pve servers ??

Why Everfrost of course .

I think you hit the nail on the head my friend. To merge the serves to a point they were something less than desolate wastes of server hardware, there would be 2 servers left (aside form AB and the PvP server). That would just look bad, even though it would be a great help overall

What I find most interesting here is the '(RP)'. Who is it who's keeping this MMORPG alive?

I moved from Perma to AB and would never go to a low pop server.

Great marketing move btw...people quit b/c of low population servers and the fix is to break up the only healthy server......

It was the newest hardware server so a bunch of people moved there b/c of latency issues.

Yeah, right.

Hopefully all the EU players on AB might move back to SP and help it

Wow, so each guild would have to reform from the ground up (from level 1) on a new server? Yikes, that's not going to win over too many people.

I just started a new character on Antonia Bayle and am seriously considering moving my characters from Oasis. I found that I don't even login to Oasis anymore because it's nearly impossible to find groups. I would happily support a server merge, or free transfer TO Antonia Bayle, but after seeing how active Antonia Bayle is in the week or so I've had a new character there, I can't imagine going back to the desolate desert that is Oasis (see what I did there).

I appreciate the effort to potentially return some players back to other servers, but I don't really see enough people wanting to move off of the most populated server for me to want to return to my other characters I have currently on Oasis. Thank you for trying to get creative and solve the low population problems. I'm sure you see dozens of transfers currently from other servers to AB. Perhaps if this was an option after a server merge, that might leave enough people to find groups on other servers.

I'm hopeful for the cross-server grouping that may eventually happen, and I'm praying it's better implemented than Dungeon Finder is currently. A neutral area like Battleground's Champion Respite or a cross server worldwide chat channel where groups can form beforehand is a must. Joining a random group is unreliable for heroic dungeons. (side note: I do love the level agnostic dungeons and would love to see more zones available there as well as some options/incentives for 95+ to be able to participate with their lower level friends)

Thanks for your hard work!

As a roleplayer, I chose AB from day one of release precisely for that reason. Population, and what I believe is a very friendly and interactive community, brought others over afterwards. I would not leave when so much is invested here, especially when everything must be left behind.

Logistically, what I don't understand is why not merge smaller servers together to make larger ones and leave AB alone?

Antonia Bayle still has a vibrant community of at least 80+ people that still roleplay and participate in events. Just take a look around the old news archives for announcements for stuff like the Festival of Unity and Discord that happens annually on Antonia Bayle--those events were thought up and planned by coordinators in the Roleplaying community of Antonia Bayle. We just had the Festival of the Blood Moon celebrating Dark Elf culture this past week in Darklight Wood. We just keep to ourselves, because for whatever reason there are people who insist on ruining other people's fun.