Server merge feasible?

[RootinTuutin]

I see a lot of comments on the forums about servers merging. Proponents say it would improve the playing experience by making a larger base to group with. Opponents say it would increase lag. In theory, it would be really cool to have all the players from all servers in one world provided lag was minimized. Talk about MMO!

I understand as players we are not privy to all the information Standing Stones games has, but I still thought it would be worthwhile to have an open discussion of the pros and cons. One thing that jumped out at me was the logistics. I have seen characters transfer from one world to another where the name already existed and so they got a "-1" after their name. For really popular names would you keep adding hyphens and numbers? And would the same apply to guild names? Just a thought, but maybe something to kick off the discussion. I figure a large player base on a single world, with so many to group with, and again provided lag was minimal, would be very attractive to new players.

[math92]

I see a lot of comments on the forums about servers merging. Proponents say it would improve the playing experience by making a larger base to group with. Opponents say it would increase lag. In theory, it would be really cool to have all the players from all servers in one world provided lag was minimized. Talk about MMO!

I understand as players we are not privy to all the information Standing Stones games has, but I still thought it would be worthwhile to have an open discussion of the pros and cons. One thing that jumped out at me was the logistics. I have seen characters transfer from one world to another where the name already existed and so they got a "-1" after their name. For really popular names would you keep adding hyphens and numbers? And would the same apply to guild names? Just a thought, but maybe something to kick off the discussion. I figure a large player base on a single world, with so many to group with, and again provided lag was minimal, would be very attractive to new players.

no cause that will not generate money, thats why they coded server transfer for 2500 ddo points

[Arctigis]

no cause that will not generate money, thats why they coded server transfer for 2500 ddo points

Maybe a bit cynical but...

Occam's razor tells us that no amount of dithering with forced grouping mechanics will
increase the number of players online. I think we're past due for a merge.

[KoobTheProud]

Not feasible due to character limitations.

My situation (5+ toons on every server, 12 on my main) is not the problem. It's that guy out there with 30 toons on every server and 60 on his main.

[TitusOvid]

Oh pleeeaaaaasee. Just assume that this thread is another 15 pages long and that the usual suspects quoted their opinion and that nothing will come of it. You will save a lot of time for everyone.

[Karadon_II]

Server merges aren't happening.

Cordovan said in a livestream recently that it was discussed, but there's no current way to copy guilds, banks, caches etc from one server to another and it seems no one is even looking into it. He said the implimentation of it would take the same work as an update cycle or two, even if there were solutions to thse issues.

If that's the case we'd have no updates [we saw what happened in 2008-09 when there was no updates] and SSG wouldn't make generate revenue from a merge. No content updates and the adding of a "-1" or something to your favourite character name because someone else is using it on a merged server would be enough to nip this in the bud for a lot of people.

Forget server merges, SSG have.

[LucidLTS]

Server merges aren't happening.

Cordovan said in a livestream recently that it was discussed, but there's no current way to copy guilds, banks, caches etc from one server to another and it seems no one is even looking into it. He said the implimentation of it would take the same work as an update cycle or two, even if there were solutions to thse issues.

If that's the case we'd have no updates [we saw what happened in 2008-09 when there was no updates] and SSG wouldn't make generate revenue from a merge. No content updates and the adding of a "-1" or something to your favourite character name because someone else is using it on a merged server would be enough to nip this in the bud for a lot of people.

Forget server merges, SSG have.

Thanks for the explanation, it's a relief to know!

I'm one of those with a large stable of characters across many servers, I've repeatedly experienced item loss even under the far simpler conditions of normal play, and we've finally got the server populations down to the point where lag is usually bearable, so talk of a server merge is always troubling. Hearing SSG has taken it off the table is the best DDO news I've heard in a long time.

I'd be delighted to see them designate one server as a "grouping preferred" server and offer free one time (or at least limited) character transfers to and from it, but absolutely not a merge.

[Karadon_II]

I'm one of those with a large stable of characters across many servers, I've repeatedly experienced item loss even under the far simpler conditions of normal play, and we've finally got the server populations down to the point where lag is usually bearable, so talk of a server merge is always troubling.

You are actually one of the types of players that would also pose a considerable issue for merging. If you have large stables of characters on each server, and there's an upper limit to the amount of characters per account on each server then you could be forced to loose characters. I'm confident what the community's answer would be to: "you may select X of the 30 characters shown on server 1 to be transferred to server 2" (the idea that the remaining characters will be erased with server 1, unless you can move them to a third server), and it wouldn't be nice.

Is merging off the table for good? That's unknown. It's just safe to say it's no where near the table now. It's down in a bottom drawer of a filing cabinet in a different room to the table

[Rekia]

I'd like to see cross server grouping, at least for raids. The only reason people want server merges is for grouping, but if we could group with people from any server, then it wouldn't matter how dead your server is.

[zehnvhex]

He said the implementation of it would take the same work as an update cycle or two, even if there were solutions to thse issues.

That's pretty much what it boils down to. The limitations they discussed should be work aroundable. They create a megaserver, spend a month or two getting guild leaders prepped to move and get their guild names and airships ready (conflicts can be settled by giving whoever is willing to rename their guild a renown boost or something). Then open it up, allow free transfers to it and disable all dungeons on the 'legacy' servers. Players can move accounts at their leisure.

Obviously I don't know how much of that is technically feasible given their tech, but I imagine the bigger issue is the amount of work that would take and as you and others have stated, it would be long term profitable and SSG/Turbine have been out of the long term profitable game for awhile now focusing mostly on quick payouts.

That's why you see so little stuff meant to grow the game, attract new players, retain them and so forth and instead just a bunch of stuff meant to milk the handful of us whales still playing the game. I mean the fact that server transfers cost so much is pretty much all the evidence you need of that.

[goodspeed]

If all the alts are on one server how will they make money on server specific items? **** it man you want them to just lose that cash? PLUS!!!! thats right they need to buy an extra alt slot for that 2800tp or whatever it is transfer. mwahahahahah

[CaptainPurge]

There is not going to be a server merge. Stop smoking crack.

Just put down the crack pipe.