Runes of Magic US / AU

Having played MMORPG games for over 15+ years, this server transfer of character precedence has already been done on other games. That being said, it would be comforting to know if GF ever consulted those games on their lessons learned on how this is executed. Doubt they have, but would make their life a heck of a lot easier.

With that aside, having played another game where this has and still is a current feature. Here is what normally happens.

- When you apply for a server transfer of your character to another server you pay for it OR if they do a mandatory server merge there is no guarantee your character name will stay. Their rule is, who ever created the character name first keeps the original name, transferring character does not and it's all based on the date. That is a gamble you take. Maker of game gives you two choices - 1) they put a special character added to the end of your characters name, usually an X designating you as the other guy, OR 2) they give you a free opportunity to change your character name. Now if your character name has never been taken then you can keep it OR your given an opportunity to change it if you so choose to. Either way your given an opportunity to change your character name for free. In this instance, on RoM, it's a free character move and those on the residing server, as well as transferring server, if a conflict in name arises "should" get a free opportunity to change their name, if they wish.

- Now as far as gear, chests, alt's associated to the account etc. I '"HIGHLY" recommend screen shotting any and everything. Segregate in specific folders (char a, char b, etc.) so you can refer back to, to prove if something was deleted in the server merge process. Nothing is perfect and things happen, I have seen it and if you have proof, then you can get your stuff back. Other games also do a back up of the server itself to an additional area prior to the server merge so they have the reach back capability to get your stuff. Basically, in case they really screw something up they have all the pre data prior to the merge and can restore your stuff just in case. I hope GF or whomever is doing this merge has thought that far ahead.

- As far as the gold and diamond prices, well that's just a topic I am not going to touch as it's a no win, never ending world of chaos that honestly has gotten out of hand and is pointless really to address. I'll leave it at that.

In addition, it would be nice to see the comprehensive layout and final projections of all server merges. Other games put out a schedule well in advance of what servers are merging and when. Right now we are getting one little server to another, what about the rest and when.

Bottom line - As a player, screen shot your stuff as a back up for yourself for proof. As for GF or whomever does the server merger, I hope you have researched this process thoroughly and have the best interest of the gamers.

Yes, I would like the active accounts defined also.

There are a fair few people in our guild that no longer play that this is going to be quite the shock if they come back, the first thing that will confuse them is their region is no longer available and as mentioned, all the items in players guilds, housing, storage, house contracts, energy, rentals and inventories. I think if the entire server of thalia gets added to a us server then it will be ok, that would include players, ALL inventories, and guilds. If there are duplicate names append them with something, the same with guilds.

I totally agree with Chip post, but that is why in another post they said the merge wouldn't happen till june 2015. For them to start with Thalia first is the smarter move to make, since not a lot of players are still there sadly. If they mess up they will have less accounts to deal with.

I also agree and hope everyone screenshots all their stuff, btw screenshots with mouse over the item, stat, rune, food etc for them to see what it is exactly and will make it faster for them to replace. Yes that is a lot of screenshots, i have 72 full chests, 5 house bank page, 6 backpack pages, 5 set of gear on my character sheet etc. i also have more toons that i can remember and most of them all geared up for their level, bank full, guild bank full etc. so ya will be a lot of screenshots for me but better be safe than sorry.

Oh and don't forget your house keepers too loll

I have faith they will be able to do the server merge, but i also have faith some things will go wrong and this will be the chance for the TEAM to shine once more. People will just have to be patient, just hope they do not make us wait 2 years like Frogster with the chest fiasco loll ;-).

As long as they take the good suggestions posted here and people screenshots their stuff, it should go well ;-)

Merging the servers doesn't really address the real problem... very few people are joining this game (to the extent you could say NOBODY is joining, maybe???). Just look at the starting areas... if you find more than one person there, you are doing good. Maybe they should advertise the game a bit and try to get some new blood into the game? I honestly wonder how long the game is going to last. I'm sure they have a group of hard core users that are keeping the game alive but sooner or later attrition will take it's toll as the hard core group gets smaller over time. WoW just came out with a new version, which users have to pay for... Maybe a little effort would bring in some new life. When I joined (Version 3, when Southern Janost Forrest was new, and the level cap was like 65), at any time you get groups of 4 or 5 people to quest in the starting areas and guilds used to have people recruiting new members there. It's quite likely that there will never be as many people in the new areas as there was then, but maybe a little effort into bringing new people into the game would go a long way to keeping the population up on the servers, instead of (or at least in conjunction with) merging servrs. I think Gameforge has done a lot of good things since taking over from Frogster. I think support is much more responsive than it was back then as one example. From this move, it seems that they recognise that populations are dwindling... maybe this would help the situation, too?

Quoted from "Thrymbayne"

Merging the servers doesn't really address the real problem... very few people are joining this game (to the extent you could say NOBODY is joining, maybe???). Just look at the starting areas... if you find more than one person there, you are doing good. Maybe they should advertise the game a bit and try to get some new blood into the game? I honestly wonder how long the game is going to last. I'm sure they have a group of hard core users that are keeping the game alive but sooner or later attrition will take it's toll as the hard core group gets smaller over time. WoW just came out with a new version, which users have to pay for... Maybe a little effort would bring in some new life. When I joined (Version 3, when Southern Janost Forrest was new, and the level cap was like 65), at any time you get groups of 4 or 5 people to quest in the starting areas and guilds used to have people recruiting new members there. It's quite likely that there will never be as many people in the new areas as there was then, but maybe a little effort into bringing new people into the game would go a long way to keeping the population up on the servers, instead of (or at least in conjunction with) merging servrs. I think Gameforge has done a lot of good things since taking over from Frogster. I think support is much more responsive than it was back then as one example. From this move, it seems that they recognise that populations are dwindling... maybe this would help the situation, too?

Yea, the merge is kinda like a bandaid. It will bring back some older players, but there's hardly any advertisement for RoM. Without the advertisement, you will only get new players through word of mouth from the current players. RoM really needs more advertisement, but the merge should happen first.

Quoted from "zidlef"

I totally agree with Chip post, but that is why in another post they said the merge wouldn't happen till june 2015.

Just as an FYI - I don't recall anywhere on US or EU/DE/FR/IT forums where June 2015 was the timeframe set for server merge(s). Since we're just gathering questions, concerns and discussions on the subject at this point, it is still very much in planning/setting up phases. There has been and probably will be no guarantee as to when exactly the server(s) will merge until all the research, testing, QA and other issues are sorted out, and we're much closer than we are now.

I guess as an edit I can say this: If you didn't see it posted by SiS, Azathor or Celes, or confirmed by them as official info, it probably isn't.

well i think and not sure 100%, but i think i saw a post from Ycarnos on another thread mentioning mid 2015 or around june 2015. I am not trolling the thread or making stuff up. I know i saw mention of it. I personally hope for sooner but you are better getting right the first time and make sure all is well, i can wait till next Christmas 2016 ;-)

IIRC, someone did mention the server merge being in june 2015. However, they had said that many players are projecting mid 2015, i believe.

I've logged in to my account, had to go find where I put my passwords, couldn't even remember them :/ so hopefully I'm now one of those active accounts.
Personally I won't come back to official servers till the diamond amounts are increased by 1000% or the price is $1 for 200dias.
When I left it was costing $50 to do one piece of gear, I hate to think what it is now lol

Quoted from "suprra"

I've logged in to my account, had to go find where I put my passwords, couldn't even remember them :/ so hopefully I'm now one of those active accounts.
Personally I won't come back to official servers till the diamond amounts are increased by 1000% or the price is $1 for 200dias.
When I left it was costing $50 to do one piece of gear, I hate to think what it is now lol

Well, good news! Gameforge is accepting applications for being the Item shop manager! ;D Here's the page!

lol it has nothing to do with item shop prices, those are fairly the same across all types of servers bar for stupid exclusions entirely from official shops.

The price of diamonds needs to be reexamined and corrected, I'm sure they've done their research and know that other servers are doing just fine with some changes.

Personally they should let the 5 people decide which server they'd like to merge to lol

LOL so true

My other char is on Artemis but I have no idea what that server is doing these days, I left that server when Thalia opened, right on the grand opening of crash city Dalanis :p

I was thinking about Sturm's question about whether the Thalia accounts were being merged into one server or all servers at random. Simply by moving the AU accounts to the US will give those players the opportunity to create characters on ALL servers, but logically, the players would be better served if existing characters (and presumably their respective guilds) were all moved into the same server. GF has the ability to monitor activity and know which US server would be most in need of more players. I will at least for the time being give them the benefit of trusting that is their intent.

Along the thought of mergers, every Govinda guild I have been a member of has had players from across the Atlantic. Swedes, Serbs, Israelis, Germans, and even one from Afghanistan ( a native Afghan, not a US service member). I see concerns here and there about lag time fro the Australians, but my friends and guild-mates from Eurasia don't seem to have a problem with the 0,1 to 0,2 ( see, I already adjusted my decimal points to European standard :rolleyes second travel time of their signal. When it comes time to figure out how to merge Palenque, it may be wisest to actually move those characters to a Spanish server. That then would involve moving their accounts to the EU. What would be the consequence of having all accounts, US, AU, and EU all moved to a "central bank" as it were, so we can all play on any GF server? US servers would need to move to Berlin perhaps, but if global population in the game continues to decline, would it not be easier to keep us going as long as possible? Diamond buying currency issues would probably be the biggest technical problem, except for some European accounts and some US accounts having the same account name, which is trickier to resolve than just identical character names on different accounts.

Just rambling thoughts for consideration...

Q:

Is the server being merged or are characters only being moved? Like... will everyone's housekeeper's and stuff be going with them? What about their pets? What about guild castles?

I screenied everything including our guild castle, it's furniture and it's vault because there is no reason for the players to suffer when gameforge ripped our server from australia in the first place.

Having actual gameforge employees answer some questions would be nice too.

Hi all,

I am new here, only been playing a few days, still v clueless. So, there is going to be a merger? I am an Aussie playing on Thalia. I seems pretty dead. Had one random, keyboard hash name person pm me but other than that in four days, nothing. I'm in the Elven Island. As an Aussie, I play pretty odd times, I guess, it is 4.14 am now (server's down so I'm here) . I work late but I'd really like to participate in guild stuff when I get some levels up, how will server merge with US effects this? I have deliberately not cashed again with some concern my new 'toys' might go poof but I would really like to buy some more things when server comes back online, the house is too small. I am assuming I have everything the same, just new people?


Well, hope to 'see' some of you, really any of you on server. Errr 4got my game name *looks @ toes* , will post in edit

I believe voidseekers are the active guild left there, go to a guild castle manager and find the leader and send them mail, hopefully eventually you'll stop playing mail tag

OMG after years of asking its finally possible.

Time to reinstall rom I guess.

How much does a recon x sell for in the US?

Cammo why did you remind me of the guild castle storage? and the fact that Im still running around in 80 cap gear?

buying all those recons might have just paid off though lol

Really? Server Merge? After all this time?! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I will have to re-install RoM now....I'm so happy I could cry! I'll be taking screenies of everything too. Wow, that's a lot of toons.

I am curious about the definition of 'active' myself. I also think it's kind of unfair of them to make a distinction like that when the main reason there are so few 'active' players left on Thalia is because of GF's decisions. Why can't they just move the whole server, active or not? I know of a few people who would love to come back to the game but haven't because 5-10 people does not a server make.

What will happen to the players that are not deemed 'active'? Will their account just be deleted? Too bad if they sank $100's or $1000's of dollars into their character only to have it all flushed away because it was too hard to move everyone.

I look forward to hearing more about the important questions asked (seriously who gives a hoot about gold/dias prices?! That has squat to do with GF anyway) and I can hardly wait to play again.....I just don't want to think about how low level I am now, or how out of date my gear/stats are....