EQ2 Terminating Support for Russian, German, French, Japanese Languages

Roshen has posted an EU server consolidation FAQ on the EQ2 forums. It also mentions the RU servers merging into Splitpaw, and Sebilis merging into Antonia Bayle.

EverQuest II is best with friends! Over the course of the next few months, we’ll be bringing players from our EU servers together. We’ll be consolidating servers, as we did with the US servers last year.

We want to wrap this up this spring, and this is the time frame we’re currently working towards:

• Russian servers (Barren Sky and Harla Dar) are scheduled to be merged with Splitpaw on Thursday, March 31, 2016.
• By the end of April, we plan to consolidate Splitpaw, Storms, and Valor into a new server!
• We’ll be merging Sebilis (our Japanese server) into Antonia Bayle. This is scheduled to happen after the EU server consolidation.

Russian characters and guilds on these servers will be required to be renamed into names that work within the English alphabet. In-game text and all support for the game on these servers will be provided in English.

After the merge of our Russian servers (Barren Sky and Harla Dar), you may see strange symbols or boxes when looking at the list of homes to visit, the location of items on the broker, or players in your guild. This will be the case while these characters are being renamed into names that work within the English alphabet.

Players should pick up soulbound (NoTrade) items from shared housing (such as Guild Halls) BEFORE the merge. This will prevent losing ownership of placed items during this merge.

We’re happy that our EverQuest II players will continue to have a home as they continue their adventures in Norrath. We appreciate your continued support!

Check out the entire FAQ here.

UPDATE: Maevianiu addressed some language concerns:

Everyone will be able to chat, and shout and etc in any language. It is just the names that we cannot support, we looked into redoing all of our translation engineering to support multiple languages, but it was too much for the resources we have available. So all of the game text will be in English, and character names will be in English alphabet.

Akella also posted their own announcement for the Russian server merges. You can thank Google translate for Splitpaw’s voracious appetite:

On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, at 23:59 Moscow time Akella complete project handling “EverQuest II in Russian.” Accounts and characters from Russian servers will be moved to Daybreak Games servers. All game texts and user support will be provided in English.

The acquired stores keys from Gama-Gama and Igromagaz will not be activated after the March 30, 2016 11:59 pm MSK. Keys additions, extending the playing time codes 30, 90 or 180 days, as well as codes of game currency (DBCash) must be activated on your account before this date. Game add-ons, DBCash currency, and paid time gold membership will be saved and will remain available after the transition of the project to Daybreak Games.

Personal information of users will not be passed on to Akella Daybreak Games. Username and password of your account will remain the same. After the transfer, you will need to choose a payment method to make purchases at Daybreak Games.

In the Thursday, March 31, 2016, servers Barren Sky and Harla Dar will be eaten with Splitpaw server (UK), which involves the transfer of all the characters and guilds in the current European server. Estimated time of unavailability of servers will be increased, taking into account the time required for the transfer of all data. After the transfer is complete, users must be selected in the launcher version of the game “EU English”, to get access to their characters on the new server.

Players will be asked to choose a new name for their characters before entering the game world after the transfer. Guild leaders will have to choose a name for their guild. Character name or guild on this server should only consist of letters of the English alphabet (Latin).

For more information on the federated server, as well as information about the coming unification of European servers can be found in the FAQ (not yet available).

Many dream of migrating to the European server. What’s good?
Firstly, Splitpaw server is located in Amsterdam, in a data center with Russian servers that ensures the same quality connection.

The second feature is the ability to pay for a subscription gaming currency, buying special chips «Krono» (crowns) to the broker. On the other hand, there is the opportunity to officially and buy game currency for real money. Chrono purchased by users who want to get in-game currency, on the DGC website. The cost of Chrono 17.99 (a little more expensive than the cost of the gold membership). In this game you can put the badge on the broker or exchange \ transfer \ give any other player.

Third, this is a unique opportunity to interact and communicate with a large European community friendly! Players from different countries will be happy to know the power of the great and mighty language, learn the key expressions and diversify their adventures. The language barrier is not an obstacle! In addition, all of you know the keywords, such as “wtf, invite, pull, incoming, lfg, afk” and others.

About sad and not very
Unfortunately, no matter how we have insisted in the negotiations on this option, but keep the localization it is not possible for technical reasons. The game engine does not allow to load various localization, and most of the text is stored on the server and is transmitted at the time of the game, which makes it impossible to adapt the client part to save the translation.

We launched EverQuest II «in Russian» September 7, 2006. It has been almost 10 years. The project lived and developed all the time. We grew up with him, becoming wiser, recruited invaluable life experience moving forward. A lot has changed during that time – something worse, something better. Change is always multifaceted and inevitable – both in life and in the virtual world. We have come a long way. Someone has been with us from the start, someone started its journey recently. Some people close to us during this time had to leave not only of Norrath, but also the real world, where there are no respawns. We were never forget. Thank you all.

Hopefully, EverQuest II has brought into your life, in bulk, only positive emotions and experiences. Many of us have got friends in the game, someone met his soul mate, someone, probably, even I managed to start a family and become a mom or dad. Norrath – is not just dead pixels, and the living world, filled with our emotions, impressions and feelings. For many of Norrath has become a second home, with its comfort and warmth. This is a unique place, where every one of you has played a significant role. For this you will also great thanks.

abyssal gag
I have been with you from the beginning, I remember the launch of the beta, epic battle dragons to wipe and then open servers. Like many of you, I was in various guilds, hung on zoning for 20-30 minutes late for work after the raids, Farm, Kraft, defeated dragons, performed hundreds of epic (and not) assignments, the second lived a full life. During this time I was lucky enough to work with interesting people over the best, and certainly unique, MMORPG in the world. I hope that we do not see each other again on the expanse of Norrath!

I would be happy to answer questions – ask in this thread or via PM.

PS: We also carry out the sale, which was reported separately in this topic.