Feldon 
If you only take away three pieces of information from today’s announcement spelling out the exact procedure and policies that will be followed in the forthcoming merger of ten EQ2 US servers into four, it’s these:
- The 2015 EQ2 server merger will follow rules regarding name reservation similar to those used in prior merges. You won’t have to “race” or fight other players to reserve character names. You won’t have to call in sick or take off a vacation day. In other words, cooler heads have prevailed!
- Every EQ2 character will be given a transfer token to move to another server within the 7 days after the merge happens. If you don’t like the server you get merged to, relax, you’ll be able to move to another server to go where the action is. Don’t expect everyone to move to Antonia Bayle — it will actually the smallest EQ2 US server after the mergers are complete. One thing you can expect — heavy Guild Recruitment during the free transfer period.
- Everything will transfer over! The EQ2 team have been redoing the underlying database tech for EQ2 to make things like Cross-Server Dungeon Finder possible. As part of this work, there will be nothing lost during these Server Merges. That includes Mail, Banks, Guilds, Player-made Dungeons, etc. Nothing will be lost. There is no need to run around trying to corral resources
These are significant changes from the previous Upcoming Server Consolidations announcement.
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:
We have been working toward our Server Consolidation plans and saw a lot of great questions and want to address as many as we can. Here you’ll find answers to the questions we could answer. We’ll update as we go!
General
Q: How is this server consolidation different than server merges of the past?
A: We’re not merging one server’s data into another. A consolidation means all characters from the designated origin servers are moved onto a new server.Q: How will we be able to retain names if others have the same name?
A: In the event of duplicate character names during the consolidation, priority will be given to the character who has logged in to the game within the past sixty (60) days. If multiple characters have logged in within the past sixty (60) days, then the character which was created first will retain their name. Other same-named characters will have an “X” (or several) added to their names automatically until their name is unique. Each player that is auto-renamed this way will get a rename potion to change their name.
Q: If my character’s name is taken or modified, will I be given a rename potion?
A: Yes, every character that is automatically renamed will be granted a rename potion to use at your convenience.Q: Will we get free character transfers?
A: Once the consolidations are complete for all of the worlds, we will open up a one-time free character transfer period for one week for those characters who were moved. This free transfer option will expire after one week.Q: Will there be any elimination of characters altogether based on level, cash reserves, etc.?
A: No, there will be no elimination of characters.Q: Should we clear our mailboxes out before the consolidation happens?
A: Mail will get transferred over to the new servers. If you would like to clean your mailbox, it will help reduce the needed down time.Q: When is this server consolidation going to happen? And when will the cross-server dungeons going to be running?
A: We don’t have a definite date for the consolidations yet. We’re currently looking at the end of September, but that may change. It takes time to make sure we’re ready for server changes of this scale. Also this is a relatively new process that we’re running this time, since we have the goal of keeping everything with your characters. The foundation of these consolidations share the same foundation as cross-server dungeons also. In the current schedule, we’ll return to working on cross-server dungeons when the server consolidations are completed and stable.Banks
Q: Should I take the things I have in the bank or shared bank out?
A: There is no need to take anything out of the bank or shared bank. They’ll all be transferred completely.Q: Will the shared bank stay behind, attached to its original server, like in previous server shutdowns or with other character transfers?
A: This server consolidation will not behave like a character transfer nor will it behave like a server closing. We have been working for more than a year to implement all of the underlying technology that will enable us to bring over all of the data, as well as smooth out the server consolidation process.Housing and Player-Designed Dungeons
Q: Does housing stuff all have to be packed into the moving crate for each house? Will housing templates be saved? (How do you do that? I forget!)
A: We are not planning any loss of anything in these consolidations. It’s always good to save your housing templates, however it will not be required. Tip: go to your house, open the house window, and hit save. It’ll prompt you for a template name, enter one, and then click Okay.Q: I have numerous dungeons that are used for storage for my decorating items. Will we need — and be provided enough time — to move items from dungeons to a house prior to consolidation?
A: No need, they’ll all get moved to the new server.Q: I and several friends HAVE done character moves and had published houses disappear, dungeons go missing along with content, random house items go missing, and anything in the bank gone. How will this server consolidation be different?
A: As mentioned above this is a completely separate process and not tied into our current character transfer system. We are considering converting our current character transfer system to using this process once the server consolidations have completed.Q: Will paid house rent transfer?
A: Yes.Q: Will depots transfer?
A: Yes, personal as well as guild depots will transfer.Q: Will player written books and housing trophies be safe in your house, or should we move them to our bags/bank/house vault?
A: They will be safe in the houses.Q: Will housing trophies still have our house info and date obtained on them, or will they now be blank?
A: They will still have your house info and date obtained.Q: Are objects in our moving crates safe?
A: Yes.Q: What if we’ve used a house item expander? Will our expanded items be safe?
A: Yes.Q: Is it safe to assume that the files in our saved house layouts within the EQII folders will be preserved?
A: Yes they’ll still be there. Just remember to not delete them off your hard drive.Q: Do we need to empty house vaults ?
A: No.Guilds
Q: Should I be emptying my guild hall office so I don’t lose the furniture I crafted and placed there?
A: No, all guilds and guild halls will be moved onto the same server. All housing will be moved as well.Q: If our names change, how will our guildmates know who we are? How will the guild still be together if everyone is renamed?
A: The names that do conflict will be renamed according to the method listed above. In the guild roster everyone will keep their notes, rank, and anything else tied to that character. If a character is renamed it will be automatically updated in the guild rosters. All characters that are auto-renamed will have the option to do a free name change. If the free name change is used it will automatically update the name in the guild roster as well.Q: How will you handle guild names?
A: Guild names will be handled similarly to character names. If two or more guilds have the same name, we will append “X” to conflicting guilds and both guilds will be offered a free guild name change. If there is no leader in your guild, you’ll need to /petition to initiate a vote for a new leader.Q: I don’t know if this is true, but people on my server have said that guilds are often deleted when the servers were merged. Is this true, and if it is, what can I do to make sure that my guild will not be deleted?
A: This is not true for this server consolidation.
…when?
For those folks on the standard servers, may the odds ever be in your favor!
We have to wait another month!!!! geee time to find something to play in the mean time
Only thing I don’t like is that some douche can log in and have a level 10 with the same name as my character, but has not played in 5 years, but because mine is newer I get the “X” even though mine is a 100 and been playing for 5 years straight
whew… Looks like, overall, good tech — whatever it is — being implemented.
Add this to the list of things indicating how these devs and programmers and the rest have not been wasting time.
I am many happy about them reusing the 2010 merge naming policy. That seemed to be the best for everyone involved.
somePerson: The chances of someone who hasn’t played in five years will login to be active enough to keep their name is pretty slim. Not impossible, just unlikely.
They’ll get to keep their name because mine has an X at the end already. I kind of liked the free-for-all idea, just because I had a shot to lose my X. Now I have zero and the guy that hasn’t played in forever and is who knows what level gets to keep the non-X version.
Anything said about what will happen to the “free” characters slots that we could have on different servers ? Should we have to unlock/pay for them (for non gold players) once they will be merged on the same server ?
I don’t understand the question. US servers are being merged into each other. US servers share the same character slot pool.
EQ2 and EQ2X character slot limits where combined when the two services merged. So don’t worry: nothing bad will happen when your Freeport characters meet your non-Freeport characters as there already is a single limit for the US zone.
1 week is just not enough time for such a colossal decision (in EQ2 terms).
I would rather they just give each char 1 free token to use whenever.
That still won’t move your guild, so most people will stay put, but AB may still be a ‘better’ choice because the population has remained active while the combo servers have all died down to nothing.
Will cross-server dungeons include Splitpaw?
They aren’t lying when they say AB will be the least populated server! The least populated of the new servers will have nearly 1.9x the number of characters that AB has. Enjoy your new friends!
And the servers that are getting Nagafen really won’t benefit much. I will log in occasionally, but won’t be playing my toons… haven’t since Deathtoll.
The free token would be good if it didn’t expire.
Has the traffic gone up much on EQ2u, what with the announcement of how the name duplicates will be handled? XD I know I looked up every toon I had and compared them to their doppelgangers on the other two servers as soon as I read forums. XD I stand to lose one of my main names, and a couple of my alt account names. >..< Can't remember the names any more (oh the irony) but the personalities were rare and good. /..\
I still want to know…. Why the HELL doesn't the company go a bit further to keep players? :\ Those friends might still be here if SOE had used Dark Age of Camelot's cluster idea from the get go. :\
I may have missed something but what is going to happen to server performance after the merges?
Kinda laggy and unstable at times already, I hope these new servers have better hardware.
I don’t think they considered duplicated shared banks. Last year I paid to move a ton of characters from Freeport to Permafrost. They will now have the same shared bank. What happens to them? Do they overwrite each other? How would the full boxes go into overflow and what character would that happen to? Apparently not all situations have been considered. I should probably begin the process of shutting down all shared banks.