Server Move Poll: Would You Move From AB to a Lower Pop Server?
From Windstalker on the EQ2 Forums:
Dear Norrathians,
We have launched a poll for players on the Antonia Bayle server asking if they would be interested in a free move to a lower population server. We didn’t add more details than that because we won’t go into planning until we get the community’s vote on the subject overall.
This is in part to gauge the interest in a move option for one of our highest population servers and to assess this alternative as a tool to move the populations around to different servers when we see an opportunity.
We’ll report back in a couple of weeks to discuss the results and then see if we should pursue the move option.
Sincerely,
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale
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Comments (54)
Traxor
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If entire guilds and groups of friends got into this and took advantage it could really help balance populations. However 3 servers would be great also
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Kralus
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I personally would rather move to AB, not away from it.
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Charn
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I WOULD be for this . . . but with the lag I’m experiencing on the Guk server, as low pop. as it is, I’d be afraid of the lag if even more people moved to AB for free . . .
They can do what they did with DCUO and just make one Mega-Server and the ability to switch from the one PVE server to the one open PVP server whenever you want. Then you can level up with PVE and not have to worry, then switch to an open world forum when YOU wanted to.
It would definitely take care of the population problem, but the lag . . . ???
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Kralus
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Mega-servers would be great, but IIRC, they said that it wouldn’t be happening.
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Eschia
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I’m for the DCUO idea. I’d like to get all my toons on one server to join my main guild. I’m sure they can fix the lag by getting better hardware at some point.
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Zzzz'z
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This could be a way to resolve the low pop server issues. I bet there are players on AB wanting to move just as much as players on the low pop servers but the thought of forking over hundred’s of dollars to move entire accounts is a huge deterent for most.
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Eschia
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As long as I can move all my toons individually for free I’m ok with it.
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Olee
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With less than 100 connected players at peak time on our server, I seriously doubt that it would solve the population problem in the long. It’s time to merge the low pop servers…
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Joe
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I moved TO AB because it’s the only server that has a pulse. When you are in the world, you actually see PEOPLE. There are people talking in chat. You can actually find a group. It feels like EQ1 was back in the day.
If the game is going to be an MMO … you know, MASSIVELY Multiplayer, you need PEOPLE. There is no reason you should go into even remotely current zones and not see a single person.
Forget moving away, everyone move TO AB.
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scratch
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Yes. The only way to keep this game alive is to greatly reduce the number of servers. Distributing AB’s population without doing that is not going to solve the problem. Why are they proposing to mess up one of the only functional communities left?
The best solution is to leave AB as is and merge the remaining servers so that we have 3-5 rather than, what is it now, 16? Right now these servers are in a death spiral. I hope they save them before it’s too late, but I don’t have a lot of confidence.
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Avithax
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You guys are missing the point. We’re already all on the same server after migrations it’s just they aren’t dumb enough to give up the 25 bucks a pop to have people relabel their toon
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scratch
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Not just one toon, lots of us would have to fork out big bucks to move all the toons we use often (and with the way weekly currency farming works, the game play encourages playing multiple maxed toons). And even if we moved our toons we’d leave behind our guilds, guildhalls, DM stashes, etc.
Server transfer tokens are not a viable solution and the devs should recognize it to keep the players in game. Otherwise people just drift away to other games.
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madrat
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some of us have 13 level 100’s moving the entire account to another server would not be fun. So I have 15 in all that would be 15×25 = 375 just for my account. The wife has 9×25 = 225, and the youngest child would be 75, and the oldest child if she still played would be 100. So that adds up to a lot of hurt, and that is why I never moved.
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madrat
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how about just letting those of us on small servers move to ab, I can’t see anybody wanting to move from the largest server to the smallest. I am like others it is time for server merges.
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Poziijoep
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Merge them
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Wyldbeast
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Funny i just moved to AB from CB cause it was to dead.
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Pink Poodle
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Uh, I think people would rather server merges or come to AB instead.
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scratch
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What about a server transfer token bundle? Like 5 for $35 on one account. Some people would cry that they have toons on multiple accounts, so they’d have to buy more than one bundle. I’d buy it though and probably take my toons to AB 😉
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Aurora
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Is there some database tech reason the “servers” can’t be put under the same name, since the whole game is a series of instances anyway? Since they spawn a new instance anyway if things get crowded, it seems the ideal would be to just have the one “server” called Everquest 2.
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thait
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Yeah i’m more for the idea of merging the low pop servers together to create several large servers. Though it would likely cause some people problems in the name department since they would likely have to change names.
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Pheeliya
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you would have to be crazy to move from AB to a lower server… much rather just merge lower servers together..
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Necromancer
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I think it’s time for a progression server. Those are insanely popular on EQ.
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Malleria
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Results in a couple of weeks means we’ll hear about it some time in 2017 given their track record with polls.
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GriffonLady
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What happened to their possible “it doesn’t matter what server you created your toon on” idea? With all the cross server dungeon finder, I really had my hopes up.
But for those of you calling for server mergers, don’t forget all the people who quit over losing their online identity. :\ Losing players is bad, mmmkay?
Just keep bugging them for the right thing; free movement between servers. (even if it is restricted to once a day or subscribers only, or something like that.)
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scratch
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Maybe it’s just me, but playing on a dead server is much more likely to make me leave the game than getting an x at the end of my name.
And if we have free move between servers how will that fix the identity problem? As I understand it, you can’t have two toons on a server with the same name. I think free moves might be a logistical nightmare with guild mechanics. The player base can support a few active servers, not 16.
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GriffonLady
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Ever been on the battlegrounds?
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Olee
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Over the years I’m always hearing the 3 same issues about server transfer or server merge:
1) the posibility to keep our toon name
2) the possibility to move all our toons at once, for a fair price
3) the possibility to move a guild, at least the ability to keep the guild level and status points, I understand that moving a guild hall is a real problem since the items could be the property of a player that does not wants to move
I’d rather have the dev spend some time to the make the combination “name + surname” our unique name on EQ2. I think that it will be necessary in a near futur if they don’t want to loose too many players when server merges will be the only solution left.
For those who wants to move all our toons at once they could sell tokens package (10 tokens for the price of 2 for example), and they offer a big discount if you want to move to a lower population server.
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Mermut
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In EQ2 you can’t give your character surname immediately at creation and can change the last name almost at will (I think there is a one day or so cool off before you can change it again), so first name/surname wouldn’t work for ID
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GriffonLady
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we could pick a handle name, like on forums. Some games go by your account name and do account wide friends lists, but that has privacy issues.
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Ezheal
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What if they offered the lowest populated server free server transfer tokens to move to a server of their choice, except a move to AB,
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kunfyang
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Make transfer token tradeable like Krono.
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Omence
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I really hope everyone votes No to this so they more strongly consider server merges. Asking people to leave the only server with a somewhat decent population is silly.
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GriffonLady
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Most of the people I know don’t want mergers, they want the ability to go from server to server.
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Chanmac
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Horrible idea.. Far to late for that. No significant amount of players would leave AB; that would be asinine.
And it would have no effect on low pop servers…
Grow up and merge already.
They said they wanted to try the dungeon Q thing first.. It doesn’t wont do anything either. Why do they keep putting it off.
You might even get more players from servers feeling more alive.
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GriffonLady
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No, they’d lose players. I’ve seen it happen 2 times already. :\ I lost friends both times.
Pissing off players vs listening to whiny players. Usually it pays off to make people in general as happy as possible, then try to cater to the impatient whiners in a balanced manner, like enabling cross server grouping, or better yet, freedom to move from server to server.
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Wyldbeast
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I still say they need to make a zone for heroics and raid zones like they have for BGs. Where all servers can go to and look for grps instead of the DF as it never builds grps right.
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GriffonLady
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Aye, I think that would be the easiest way to enable cross server grouping. I realllly have my hopes up they’ll just open all the servers up for travel. It’d not only be great for people looking for guilds/groups, adventuring, but it’d also be awesome for decorators and the small group of people who still play DMs just to see what people do.
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Zzzz'z
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I can’t imagine on AB how difficult it must be to find/kill those few names in TS and PS to get the solo weekly done in each zone. 😈
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Jeeshman
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Why in the wide, wide world of sports would anyone on AB want to move to a lower-population server!? “Hey, we couldn’t help noticing your toons are on the one server where it’s easy to get groups. Would you like to move them to a server where it’s NOT easy to get groups? Wouldn’t that be great? Why are you looking at us like we’re crazy?”
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GriffonLady
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XD I’d leave. I hate crowded servers. I hear the lag there is pretty horrendous.
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Omence
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Let’s make a different Poll:
How many Developers would be willing to merge servers?
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GriffonLady
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How bout a poll where people vote for instant gratification that will most likely make a bunch of players quit immediately (who cares about them, right?), or the longer term goal of cross server grouping that makes everyone happy?
Who am I kidding… people go for the fastest self pleasure thing even if it kills or maims them… hummans… /throws up hands in exasperation
o.0 How many of these complainers actually were here for the last 2 server mergers?
XD Not to mention, the same people whining and crying for server mergers will be bitching about how they can’t get any nameds a week later, and about how merging servers is a sign the game is dead bla bla bla. XD
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Lonsen
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Does anyone even worry about named mobs anymore? This isn’t 2007.
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GriffonLady
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o.0 Have you tried finding nameds in a current area?
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Hammertime
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No I would’nt, cause I have already started to move my toons to AB to have peeps tp play with!!!
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Kralus
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Holly posted the following on Reddit. “So it’s clear, mega servers and mergers are not feasible in our immediate future (not this year, certainly).”
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Lateana
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I am the opposite. of the general rule. I liked being on a small population server and was not happy when my server was force merged with Freeport. There are definite problems with large population servers such as reduced availability of named monsters, competition for harvestables ands folks who harrass other players just because they can.. Currently I am on Freeport, Splitpaw, and Permafrost. I would definitely move off AB if I was on that server too.
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GriffonLady
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Don’t worry Lateana. The same people that keep belly aching about the mergers they want will be complaining about everything you brought up if there is a merger. :\
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rainy17
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AB is a RP server. Merge pve servers if you must, but stop diluting the rpers by causing pve-solely people to move to AB.
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Wirewhisker
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What they need: Consolidation of servers to increase their vitality since there is only one server that is truly busy.
What they propose: Breaking up the one truly busy server.
Great work, Ex-Sony. Absolute magic.
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Aaron
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Moving from AB sounds ridiculous. I would happily move to it though.
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sraen
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I and pretty much every person i have talked to wants server merges. It makes a lot more sense, especially given the time it takes for alternatives to be implemented i.e. cross-server dungeon finder. There aren’t enough active players on the small servers to justify keeping them going.
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Krosp
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The obvious answer to this is a megaserver like Eve uses. All US players in one place, and all EU players in one place. If that’s too much effort, merge a few to get one server with a decent population. Throwing bandaids like cross server grouping at the problem will only delay the right move and make it more expensive in the long run. Unless you truly love soloing, you would have to be a frakking idiot to move from a server with a pop like AB to somewhere else with 50 players on ay any given time.
Rearrainging deck chairs and all that.
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7rlsy
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Uhm, anybody else been unable to delete that particular in-game mail? I’ve tried with three toons now in various logged-in sessions, and there is no option to trash that one. wth?
Actually… I hadn’t checked to see if I can delete any other mail now. hmmm… bug? I’ll check the forum, too…
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