The Latest on Transfer Timing

[Arteghost]

My sense of the servers prior to the free transfers was that Argo and Orien were overpopulated and had too much lag, Wayfinder was dead as disco, and the remaining, mid-size servers were... OK.

As I understand it, the point of allowing transfers was to enable players from Orien and Sarlona, who had been blocked from transferring home from the hardcore server, to return home.

Instead, we're seeing numerous players jumping from less-active servers to Orien and Sarlona... creating even less activity on mid-size servers like Thelanis, Khyber, Ghallanda, Cannith, and play-crippling lag on already-overpopulated Orien. Not cool, cool I myself jumped from Argo to Sarlona looking for less lag... only to discover I wasn't the only one with the idea. If this ends with enough players making the same move to bring the lag with us, I will cry

Unless the goal is to make all servers less attractive, please do something to fix this. Soon. Gamers have short attention spans. We're seeing a lot of returning players at the moment. Don't give them a reason not to stay.

Cheers.

If you are to believe the audit, lets all shame Ghallanda.

[Gordo]

To all of you affected, I feel terrible.

To all of you asking even the simplest of questions (after the initial statement from SSG) and expecting a follow up "Q&A", I feel worse.

This is not a normal, functioning company. The fact these problems persist or even occur, should tell you everything you need to know about a game that many of us pay for both as a subscription and with in game currency, and they still can't stop breaking - let alone fix.

I feel empathy for you which is far more than the people who actually work at SSG feel.

[Cordovan]

Any chance that the fixed version will allow for a complete transfer (AS, mounts etc)? Or the ability to "fold up" a guild to give a "Guild Charter" in your inventory that also has the guild XP of the original guild? Or something like that?

No, this work will not include any new features or functionality.

Cord, perhaps this isn't the place to bring it up... but there is at least one glaring issue with transfers that seems to be affecting a lot of people: being unable to re-earn Monster Manual rewards. It might be worth looking into this while whatever else is being worked out is worked out.

My thread on it is here.

This is an issue we will have to look into longer-term. Typically you can re-earn the rewards after undergoing a True Reincarnation. Unfortunately this is a challenging systems issue to resolve.

[kamimitsu]

No, this work will not include any new features or functionality.



This is an issue we will have to look into longer-term. Typically you can re-earn the rewards after undergoing a True Reincarnation. Unfortunately this is a challenging systems issue to resolve.

I appreciate your response, but I recently did an Iconic TR and there was no change to the Account-based rewards (which is the issue). I have a ticket in, but it sounds like (per the previous threads on this issue years ago and your response) that I might be waiting a while. Even so, thanks for directly responding.

[Wahnsinnig]

No, this work will not include any new features or functionality.



This is an issue we will have to look into longer-term. Typically you can re-earn the rewards after undergoing a True Reincarnation. Unfortunately this is a challenging systems issue to resolve.

You can not re-earn account deeds when they are bugged after transfer. The problem is not with character deeds.

[Maidenstalker]

Thanks for the update. Must be a tricky bug.

I was in the middle of a bunch of transfers and had to get a VIP subscription for a month to free up greyed out toons (was VIP, switched to premium, lost six slots on each server), so I hope it is fixed soon because I still have five that would be greyed out on Argo. March 8 is (currently) my last day of VIP.

[LT218]

With the extra load from transfers, can you please look into moving the default to another server? The lag over the past two weeks is making Orien unplayable in US eastern evenings. Putting new players somewhere with less server load is probably the fastest, cheapest band-aid solution.

SSG should allow Orien players to transfer to Ghallanda so they can see what real lag is with half the active players.

[YUGWEN]

We are currently working to resolve an issue that prevents us from opening World Character Transfers. At this time we do not have an ETA on when this service will return. We will announce an extension of the free transfer period to Orien and Sarlona in addition to an extension of transfers from the Hardcore server once we know more about this service's return.

In my wildest dreams I imagine a single mega US server or two mega US servers where the least and most populated servers are combined followed by the next to balance them out. I imagine character creation/merging with a naming designation XYZ of Khyber and XYZ of Sarlona etc. so there are no duplicate name issues. With the massive level spread now, the only time I see a lot of opportunity to play with other humans is on HC or in raids. But, as someone on West Coast time, I don't usually see a lot of raids or people online when I am.

On the mega server idea, assuming finance is a major hurdle to that option, couldn't SSG come up with some kind of fundraiser? People will find a reason to complain no matter what, but I'd like to see fundraiser cosmetics, a special combo heroic/epic box, legacy gear/loot from raids that no longer happen (or are, um broken...), normally I would say a partnership/sponsorship but there's no company I can think of that someone won't get politically freaked out about so not worth the drama to try that imo.

DDO has a lot of life in it and ahead of it, if we can get by the technical issues the path will get a lot smoother and less dramatic. Less lag plus all of the work that has gone into new content, and the still excellent play mechanics could encourage a lot of former players to return too.

[Wizard1406]

In my wildest dreams I imagine a single mega US server or two mega US servers where the least and most populated servers are combined followed by the next to balance them out. I imagine character creation/merging with a naming designation XYZ of Khyber and XYZ of Sarlona etc. so there are no duplicate name issues. With the massive level spread now, the only time I see a lot of opportunity to play with other humans is on HC or in raids. But, as someone on West Coast time, I don't usually see a lot of raids or people online when I am.

On the mega server idea, assuming finance is a major hurdle to that option, couldn't SSG come up with some kind of fundraiser? People will find a reason to complain no matter what, but I'd like to see fundraiser cosmetics, a special combo heroic/epic box, legacy gear/loot from raids that no longer happen (or are, um broken...), normally I would say a partnership/sponsorship but there's no company I can think of that someone won't get politically freaked out about so not worth the drama to try that imo.

DDO has a lot of life in it and ahead of it, if we can get by the technical issues the path will get a lot smoother and less dramatic. Less lag plus all of the work that has gone into new content, and the still excellent play mechanics could encourage a lot of former players to return too.

Yes mega server would be great.

DDO really only has enough population for 1 maybe 2 servers outside of afternoon/evenings US, since population skews heavily US (esp. EST)

I'm not sure why DDO isn't that popular in other countries. Maybe because there is no translation to other languages (anymore) and the pricing model is too expensive outside of the richest countries.

[Ereshkigal]

In my wildest dreams I imagine a single mega US server or two mega US servers where the least and most populated servers are combined followed by the next to balance them out. I imagine character creation/merging with a naming designation XYZ of Khyber and XYZ of Sarlona etc. so there are no duplicate name issues. With the massive level spread now, the only time I see a lot of opportunity to play with other humans is on HC or in raids. But, as someone on West Coast time, I don't usually see a lot of raids or people online when I am.

On the mega server idea, assuming finance is a major hurdle to that option, couldn't SSG come up with some kind of fundraiser? People will find a reason to complain no matter what, but I'd like to see fundraiser cosmetics, a special combo heroic/epic box, legacy gear/loot from raids that no longer happen (or are, um broken...), normally I would say a partnership/sponsorship but there's no company I can think of that someone won't get politically freaked out about so not worth the drama to try that imo.

DDO has a lot of life in it and ahead of it, if we can get by the technical issues the path will get a lot smoother and less dramatic. Less lag plus all of the work that has gone into new content, and the still excellent play mechanics could encourage a lot of former players to return too.

What server are you on that you cannot either join or create a group and have people to play with?

[Seph1roth5]

I don't get how MM is so complicated for people that code for a living. Seems like there's SOMEwhere that keeps track of your kills, and then a yes/no that toggles when you hit the milestones. Is it buried so deep AND no one knows how to find it?

That's really just embarrassing for a company. It'd be like if a restaurant got my order wrong, and when I try to send it back they say sorry they don't have anyone in the kitchen that knows how to make that (even though it's on the menu), so I have to eat the wrong dish.

[Livmo]

We are currently working to resolve an issue that prevents us from opening World Character Transfers. At this time we do not have an ETA on when this service will return. We will announce an extension of the free transfer period to Orien and Sarlona in addition to an extension of transfers from the Hardcore server once we know more about this service's return.

Also can we get character slots on sale at that time to?

Please and thanks. I've got a village to feed

[wolfspirit72]

With the extra load from transfers, can you please look into moving the default to another server? The lag over the past two weeks is making Orien unplayable in US eastern evenings. Putting new players somewhere with less server load is probably the fastest, cheapest band-aid solution.

DDO and lag are synonymous. We cope. We deal.
I will take 1000 lag deaths anytime over having no one to play with. The more the merrier. Put the people together and let the lag sort them out.
I'll be also moving to Orien with my Main as soon as it opens back up. That seems to be where the people are migrating to, and I shall follow the people.
The lag be dammed.



Just my view...

[wolfspirit72]

I don't get how MM is so complicated for people that code for a living. Seems like there's Somewhere that keeps track of your kills, and then a yes/no that toggles when you hit the milestones. Is it buried so deep AND no one knows how to find it?

That's really just embarrassing for a company. It'd be like if a restaurant got my order wrong, and when I try to send it back they say sorry they don't have anyone in the kitchen that knows how to make that (even though it's on the menu), so I have to eat the wrong dish.

If you did code for a living, you would get it. But you don't, so you do not. Comparing food preparation in a restaurant is faaaaar different that combing through 1,000,000,000 characters in code. Its SO complex that even database management tools struggle.
The complexity is mind boggling to those that think that coding is as easy food prep...

[Demonfire]

Hey Cord!
Is it far fetch to simply allow G-landers who want to, like me, to simply go back for free.

Clearly SSG does not have the infrastructure to host more then 400 people at a time.
I tried to better my experience being part of a bigger population but obviously this is a fail!

When the transfer goes back live please allow us one last free transfer!

[KoobTheProud]

If you did code for a living, you would get it. But you don't, so you do not. Comparing food preparation in a restaurant is faaaaar different that combing through 1,000,000,000 characters in code. Its SO complex that even database management tools struggle.
The complexity is mind boggling to those that think that coding is as easy food prep...

If you have good processes behind the development effort it's not that hard.

When I consulted in IT I'd be able to tell you in about 15 minutes whether a company had a good process in place just by looking at the change logs and what steps were required to check code in and out. That look would tell me exactly how tough the job in front of me was and whether it was worth pursuing.

Companies that rely on people instead of process are a complete disaster from a code maintenance perspective. If process is King then the job really is not that difficult and a wider range of skill sets can participate. If people are King then it's time to outsource the entire IT process and let professionals handle it for you. Cost of ownership is *much* lower in that situation.

[parttimewarrior]

DDO and lag are synonymous. We cope. We deal.
I will take 1000 lag deaths anytime over having no one to play with.

You do realize that you won't have anyone to play with anyway if everyone is unable to play due to lag?

Whatever. Today's the worst day so far. Can barely move my character even in a scarcely populated zones like the Twelve. Sure, let's bring more people to Orien to make original Orien players quit. And I doubt they'll be restarting on a different server after this transfer BS.

[Peroth]

With the extra load from transfers, can you please look into moving the default to another server? The lag over the past two weeks is making Orien unplayable in US eastern evenings. Putting new players somewhere with less server load is probably the fastest, cheapest band-aid solution.

+1 Life on Orien has been miserable since the massive influx of new players. My partner and I play in the evenings after work and the massive lag spikes tend to leave us dead even after dropping the difficulty from 4 to 1 skull. The greater server instability combined with the sad excuse for a new VIP reward system has decidedly put the DDO subscription on the "not to be renewed" list unless something changes between now and when it expires in July (we buy 1 year at a time).

[Kryxal]

Funny, I was thinking of transferring out of Cannith so as to have more people to group with. Low numbers or lag, tough choice...

[Livmo]

Funny, I was thinking of transferring out of Cannith so as to have more people to group with. Low numbers or lag, tough choice...

The only place I've suffered lag on Orien is in Thuderholm PST.

If you have 10 charecter slots for example, you can make 10 chareters on each server. You can try before you buy. Roll up an iconic.

Better yet, SAAAARLOOOONAA!

Best beaches in DDO!