server-merges
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Vanguard US server merge complete [Update]
It's been a rough ride for players of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes over the past few months, with the dreaded "maintenance letter" back in December that left players uncertain about the game's future. That uncertainty wasn't helped when rumors began circling that the game would be merging servers, followed by a confirmation of same. As of now, the server merge is complete, with the game's population all concentrated on a single server dubbed Telon. The good news for players is that the merge, on a whole, went fairly smoothly. There was a slight extension of the expected operation time, which is really normal when dealing with a large-scale operation. It should also help the game's players enjoy the game with a larger population to draw from. The bad news is... well, a server merge is never exactly a comforting fact for any game, and we can only hope that the long-term benefits for Vanguard outweigh the negatives. [Update: This does not affect the EU server which is set to merge at a later date. Thank you to everyone who tipped us on this!]
One Shots: Returning to the oldschool
It's definitely been a while since we've had a look inside SOE's original MMO offering, EverQuest. Some things are comfortingly familiar, like the flat planes of floors and furniture. Other things seem strangely updated, such as Ryan's character and pet. He sent in a longer note to explain, so we'll cede the rest of the column space to him and simply remind y'all to email your images to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a note about what we're seeing. For now, on with Ryan's story, which continues behind the break as well "This photo was taken just after I popped on today, when the servers opened up after the big server merger. I had known ahead of time that he was going to have to change his name because someone with a character sharing the same first name predated him in the server I merged with. He was born on October 22, 2002, so that's saying something." %Gallery-85937%
Sony Online Entertainment announces EverQuest server merges
If you've felt like the population in EverQuest was on the low side lately, you can expect that problem to disappear within the next month or so. Sony Online Entertainment will be gradually cutting the number of servers in half beginning June 22nd. They'll complete the process by July 6th, leaving ten servers in place of the original twenty. It's a big undertaking, and SOE have done some detailed planning ahead. The forum announcement contains the list of planned mergers, answers to common questions, and important information about the deletion of inactive characters and shared banks. They are further easing the transition by offering one free server transfer for all affected characters as well as discounts on race, gender, and name changes. If you've got characters in EverQuest -- active or inactive -- these server merges are very likely going to affect you. Head over to the EQ forums and read the full announcement for all the details.
Aion 1.9 patch dated, server merges announced
Aion producer Chris 'Kinslon' Hager has dropped a bomb of a community letter on the game's players, packing it full of information including the North American release dates for the highly anticipated 1.9 patch. The letter also mentions an upcoming character transfer service (free for a limited time), as well as server merges. "I don't relish the idea of mergers," Hager says. "However, once it is complete you should notice improvements in each of the new server economies, an abundance of players to group and run instances with, a number of great Legions to join or people to form new ones with, and a more tightly knit community.When all is said and done, Aion will be a better game because of the server merge. We're in the planning stages, and will have more information on the timing and execution in the coming weeks." As for 1.9, players can expect to see it on the test server on May 25th, with a June 2nd release date on the live servers. Finally, Hager mentions that work has already started on the huge task of bringing the 2.0 content update from Korea to North America, and hints at a Fall 2010 timetable. Check out the full letter over at the official Aion website.
The breakdown of Final Fantasy XI's VanaFest 2010 announcements
After a month of heavy anticipation from the fans, VanaFest 2010 finally has come and given us all the information that we could want about where the game is heading from here. And the show did stay focused upon Final Fantasy XI -- the only mention of Final Fantasy XIV was the announcement that its first wave of beta testing will start on March 11th with a limited number of participants. That left quite a bit of show left to detail all of the changes coming to the game. And there was certainly a lot of news to be shared. An increase in level cap, new add-on zones, job reviews, conclusions to existing content, server merges, new seasonal gear -- there was no shortage of surprising announcements. Continue on past the cut for the short version of what came out during the show and what players can expect.
Tabula Rasa server merge to affect US servers only
We've mentioned in the past that NCsoft plans to merge all four Tabula Rasa servers into one, before the final shutdown on February 28th. Their plan has changed somewhat, as only the three U.S. servers (Pegasus; Orion; Cassiopeia) will be merged into a consolidated server called Hydra. NCsoft will perform a data capture on Monday, and it may take up to 48 hours beyond that before Hydra is active. NCsoft says, "This means that characters will appear to 'time warp' back to Monday at 12:01 AM on the new server. We do not recommend doing anything irreversible to your character after Monday's data capture, as we are not absolutely confirming the server merge at this time. We will release more details, as well as a final conformation of the server merge, early next week." Tabula Rasa's European server, Centarus, is not being included in the server merge, and as such will have a separate 'sunset' event for European time zones.
