[Suggestion] Character Ability to Move Between Servers

In regards to being able to move our character between servers...

On PC - Yes please!

On PS4 - Yes Please!

It should be even easier than that.

Landmark.. a Daybreak game that uses a VERY similar structure in both graphics and rendering engines (Forgelight) and server structures. Allows you to switch servers when you choose continents. If you're on the server Serenity on the continent of The Falls, you can go to the same continent on the Courage server.

Even allows you to go from NA to EU servers and vice versa.

The effect in Planetside 2 would be that say you are on Emerald Indar, you use the warpgate terminal to go to Connery Hossin. They'd have to switch up how continent locking works as well as the bonuses. And of course queues would have to be enforced as needed.

But think about it. The factions across all the servers are more balanced in general than any individual server. So this would make fights more even. In addition if you're a night shift person, you will ALWAYs have a large group to play and fight with at any hour and you can use the same character.

The only downside is we lose server identities. A negligible benefit in 2016.

Well they said that they believed they had figured out how to do it & were requesting feedback.

On the PC I believe new players would benefit most (which is great) & veterans could play with even more new folks & adversaries which sure sounds like a win.

On the PS4 the separate client/server has been an awful thing (at least for my International group of friends) & the sooner we can negate this current situation & move forward the better.

The worry is that faction balance will get worse, not better. And some servers will die, this might as well be a merger. Instead of fighting on one server, you can go to another that has favorable pop, favorable locked continents, an alert on your favorite continent, etc. Seems like a great idea but most likely will cause more problems than it fixes.

Man, I would love to be able to do that. But at the very least, what the Devs are currently working on would be better than nothing. I was so glad to hear that they are going to do this. I had completely written if off. I didn't think we would ever get to do it.

Being able to swap servers is a bad idea.It breaks more things than it fixes.

The first thing is that there is negligible benefit. The only thing that changes is who you can shoot at and who is shooting with you. That isn't a big thing.
Most importantly is that this could kill servers and population balance. People will swap to the servers with continents locked in their favour. This could cause a massive population imbalance across all the servers. People will then look for good fights if there are few continents locked in their favour on a server. This could then kill one server for a short period of time, or a long one if no good fights are started on the dead servers, which is very possible. It would also add to the server population imbalance, because 98% of fights are two faction battles. This means large numbers from two of the factions would swap, but not the other, and on the server with the good fight, those two factions would have a swelling of numbers, which could then, after the fight ends, mean large overpop against the smaller faction. It would also leave a large population problem on the server they swapped from.

So, basically, its a bad idea because it doesn't give a big enough benefit and can easily (not definitely) make some big problems. Also, it would require extra work from the devs for something with minimal (possibly negative) gains.

I'm not a great fan of the idea. I mean, it's nice to know who you're fighting.
Even without speaking, you learn to know the names of your opponents and teammates.
Being surrounded by total strangers all time long would bore me, i guess.

Given that this was first broached within the initial six months, many people have moved or changed servers, making new characters. What would be even better than simply moving characters between servers (for a fee of course), is to merge characters of the same faction into one character. For example, lets say someone has a tr character on emerald that is br80, but then moved to connery and now has a tr br90 character. Simply moving the br80 would not be worth it, but merging the br80 into the br90 would be very worthwhile. You would have to give up something, of course, but combining kills should not be a problem. I'd be willing to give up the xp of the lower br character myself if I could get all the kills for the weapons.

PS4 yes please it would make membership relevant to avoid que times, almost never see them anymore after the first month the game came out.

Yes please.

I sometimes have to play during off-peak hours (night time) and it would be nice to be able to play my main.

I am dismayed by some of the people who would dismiss some kind of server change ability; as a recent newcomer to Europe from Australia, I find my br 100 character that I made shortly after ps2 left beta trapped on a server I cannot play on due to excessively high ping. I know many would dismiss me saying I could simply create a new character on miller or cobalt, however I cannot bear to lose the character I have been playing with for many years that has attained many skins and weapons (original NS-15, 2nd year anniversary decals, ect) that are now unobtainable for new characters. Implemented properly, it could be made that no character could transfer to a server in which they have too high a faction pop in which should solve any balance issues. I hope that this feature is added so that I may play again.

Absolutely support this idea, shame the devs will never do it.
They think that people are more likely to spend money in game on new characters if they do it like this.
Take this guy for example:

The devs will assume that this guy will start playing on Euro servers, but wont want to 'grind' his weapons and unlocks again, and therefore will pay (through the roof might i add) to unlock what he wants.
Gathering from what he said, this doesnt appear to be the case, and infact he seems less willing to play now than if his character was transfered.

Just something to try Treacle, contact customer support and ask them if its possible for them to transfer your character. Explain that your location has changed and your server is no longer a viable location to game on.
Might pull at their heart strings, tbh i doubt it, but im sure others have achieved such things in the past.

So you'd just stay on your server then and not make use of this feature?
Seems like no reason at all to dislike the idea.

Not sure it would be the end of earth scenario you've described.
Sure you'll have the guys who want an easy ride, but they will be doing the same things now anyway. Most of these types will have 3 characters, 1 for each empire on their server, and simply pick the one with the best stuff at the point they log on.

Who im shooting with is absolutely a big thing for me, and many others. I like to play as part of a group, a team, like this game was intended. Sure a soloist wont care who is next to them, but i absolutely do.
My outfit for example has 2 planetside 2 elements to it, one is the NC miller part, the other plays TR cobalt. Id like to be able to play against my outfit mates on cobalt from time to time.
I also used to play with an American outfit, still would be welcomed by them if i were to play on their server. Would be great to be able to take my char over there
Sometimes i just want to be left alone and play solo or just with my bro, not very often but it does happen everyone has bad days, to do this i have to play a lower ranked character with less unlocks and less weapons and 0 construction items. With a character on whatever server option i could be free to 'get away' from my friends list and outfit mates.

Not sure population would be a problem, we have continent population balancing mechanics now, so having a massive overpop in a server would only end up in players hanging around in VR for hours, bored. I infact think it will help with pop problems, as many players who currently get kicked to VR would simply log out and into another server so they can get onto the actual continents.
Besides, it would only be the very dedicated players that follow the benefits, your 'skynights', your 'tankers', not your 'combined arms' players who partake in all the activities and facets of the game.


TLDR: I like the idea, i dont think any of the arguments so far against it hold much weight.

if any of you took the time to check the dev streams on twitch you would see this has already been suggested there and its probably going to happen

This is wrong.

There are players who prefer small fights. There are players who prefer large ones. If I login to Emerald at 12am, I'm can find any fight I want.. at first. Then it will peter off. If I could play with Emerald folks instead. This wouldn't be an issue.

Now think about someone on a nightshift. What are they supposed to do to find a large fight?

Your answer is for them to have multiple characters over multiple servers. That's selfish Bullsh-t. Plain and simple.

Queues enforce population balance. This wouldn't change. What you just said was either out of ignorance or an outright lie.

Here's the benefits:

1. Players can find fights big or small.
2. Players on odd schedules can find people to play with.
3. Larger pools of players to find squads/platoons
4. Larger pools of players to find an outfit for.
5. More likely to find the continent open that you wish to play on.

Here's the downsides:

Lose the ability to server smash. An Event that most haven't participated in anyway.
Lose the ability to have server identities. Can't say Emerald is better than Miller. (some could argue this petty stuff is a benefit to lose).

That's it.

Work has actually already been done. On Landmark, another Daybreak Game. It uses the same graphical and server structure as PS2. It has central 'warpgate' like structures that not only let you travel to other continents, but different versions of them on different servers.

I'm on Briggs, so I haven't actually ever encountered any of these population balancing things. If they work as well as you say then yeah, this server swapping thing could have a positive impact, and all the bonuses listed certainly could improve game quality.

I'm still on the no swapping side of things, but now I'm not so strongly against it.

Daybreak Games sells server transfers for like $30-50 in their other games. I suspect they will allow server transfers (which is just a char /copy) for a fee.

I'd suggest a "Wow-like migration plan". As far as i remember it, Blizzard opens migrations from a server to another one during 2 or 3 weeks. Then the migration option is closed for 6 monthes or 1 year. It ensures server pop stability, and the fact that people gets accustomed to their new allies and opponents' habits.

As a soloist only, i care about who is around. Seeing your opponents increasing their skill level, or defeating a PGM who usually farms is of importance. That's not he core of the game, but it's a part of the interest to the game. .
Being surrounded by total strangers all time long would lead to a generic look at Recursion Tracker : "So, how was the day ? Humm, ok i killed that random guy but nevermind 'cause he usually su.. . Oh wait !! I killed a 3+ KDR random guy...So cool, much excitment !!! Oh wait, those other random guys from this random Outfit did good, they were annoying during my last random game session. I hope i'll randomly fight them again sooner or later on a random day".

Competition is about knowing your opponents, their habits (because you had to learn from them) and skill level. It makes the game more challenging, more fun, from times to times.

And I guess it would lead to a concentration of Outfits. The most competitive Outfits would raid servers "4 fun".

What about cheaters/hackers tracking ? If they have the ability to move from servers to servers as soon as they are detected by people around ?

This could still happen. You would just have a larger pool of players. Some already have cross server notoriety.

This already happens. And I don't see the issue with it. Don't outfits 'raid' there own server on a normal basis when they play together? What's the damage of this?

Why not make it a single player game if we're worried about hacks? I mean they'll happen either way. If we're that worried about it, why not shut down the servers and make it all single player.

No.. you ban hackers and cheaters, fix exploits. It doesn't matter what server they are on. The F2P nature of the game is far more damaging in this regard than cross server play.

I don't know them. And i'm not interested in. I know a large part of people from my server. I'm interested in some of them. Because they are competitors. I know a bit of their habits and playstyles and they know mines. "This game session was fun until now. But this guy is now around, i'll have to take way more care about what i'm gonna do. He farmed me yesterday, i want to outplay him today." Competition and consideration about skill level of people you know. It makes the game more interesting than generic duels with total strangers.

Their own server, as you mentioned it. If i wanted to play on a server with cool outfits guys who are known for TK, Tk sundies and vehicules, being lame...I'd create a char there. I'm not interested in these guys coming to my server.

Yeah, why not getting a hammer and destroying my computer with it too ?
A cheater/hacker has to be reported several times in order to be spotted by GMs. And it takes time and proofs. The easier a guy acting in bad ways will be able to move from a server to another, the longest it will take for him to be spotted. "Fix evploits" ? Didn't the lastest hitbox issue highlighted the fact that exploits are not fixed asap ?

Yeah, I was in the PS2 ps4 beta, and once the actual game was released I made another character. The only server available at the time was EU so I've delt with some of the pain, but its grinding harder each day, wearing my patience sometimes. I am looking forward to the day I am able to play on AU Briggs so I can play with my country instead