server-transfers
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Tabula Rasa takes the unbeaten path
The guys over at Destination Games want you to know that even though most game developers release large content patches over three-to-four month periods, that's not how they plan their patch process to go down. Apparently they don't see much of a point in keeping finished content from their players while continuing to work on new content. Destination Games says their goal is to create a sense of an ever-evolving game where content is delivered to players as soon as it's done. So what does this mean for Tabula Rasa players? It means smaller -- yet more frequent -- builds that deliver new content, features and whatever else the developers can conjure up.Beyond talking about update schedules, this week's feedback friday touches on the status of the 1.4 patch. It sounds like the patch is nearing its final stages with only a few bugs left to iron out. The word is that players can expect one more pass on the test server before the patch hits the live servers. On the subject of the 1.4 patch, clones in Tabula Rasa will now come with reset skill and attribute points. Although players will not have the option of completely changing their character class.Server transfers are brought up, but Destination Games says that it's something on their "do-to list" and not scheduled for the upcoming patch. We'll be interested to see how this higher frequency patch schedule plays out in the future for Tabula Rasa and its subscribers.
Breakfast topic: Server transfers
It's been over a year since Blizzard began doing paid character transfers from server to server, and I'm still not sure how much of a success it's been. On one hand, it's definitely changed the WoW environment. Guildless raiders can now apply to hundreds of potential guilds, instead of just the few on their server. People who rolled on a random server, only to find that their friends had rolled on another, can join their pals without having to relevel. And long-abandoned alts can finally be dusted off and brought into the light. But there's a dark side to transfers, too. I frequent the Customer Service Forum, and a good number of the posts there have to do with unauthorized character transfers, character transfer screwups, or the like. (The rest of the posts are divided between "Why can't I swear in general chat?" "How can I become a GM?" and "Do something about the AFKers in Alterac Valley!") People are still unhappy that they can't transfer from PVE to PVP servers. And transfers can hurt. More than one guild has broken up because some of its officers decided to ninja-transfer to a better guild, sometimes taking the guild bank with them. People transfer in anger and then realize that they have to wait a long, long time to come back -- or sometimes can't come back at all. I've never transferred, and probably will never do it. In spite of the idiots, trolls, and ridiculous flame wars, Magtheridon is my home server, and I'd feel lost without any of the people I've grown to know over the past few years. Have you ever transferred? What do you think about the service?
Revenge of the European transfer
There haven't been any free character transfers in a while, but here's one, having started today. European players can transfer from any of Crushridge, Outland, or Warsong to any of Agamagann, Dragonmaw, Spinebreaker, or Vek'nilash. This is the most choice I've seen in any character migration, which is neat. As always, you're advised to get on these ASAP, since they could close early. Here's the blue post:Note: any free migration may be changed or closed at any time. Please keep this thread on the topic of the below migrations. Posts concerning other migrations (requests, old migrations, PCT, etc) will not be responded to here. To use the free migration, please follow this link: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/support/charactermoverealms.html FAQ: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/charactermove.html The below migrations will be activated today (Wednesday April 4th). They're scheduled to close at the start of the maintenance on Wednesday April 11th. However, again, please note that this may change at any time. (Edit: to explain; while the main purpose of the migration is to fill up some of the lower populated realms we of course don't want them filled to the point of having queues, hence the possibility of migration being closed prematurely.) From any of these realms: Crushridge, Outland, Warsong To any of these realms: Agamaggan, Dragonmaw, Spinebreaker, Vek'nilash
Is Blizzard prepared?
The tagline for The Burning Crusade is "You Are Not Prepared." Based on what I saw tonight, Blizzard is not prepared for the expansion either. It took me awhile to grab a good screenshot, I started out at 583 in queue, 57 minutes. Post after post on the General forums complaining about long queue times. With the number of people coming back to the game for the expansion pack, what kind of queue times and problems can we expect? Oh well, it gave me time to get a few new raids scheduled. Hopefully people can get logged in when I want to start.
Realm Splitting?
According to a post by Tseric on the World of Warcraft General Forum Blizzard may decide that certain largely overpopulated worlds need to be split, and Blizzard has created a mandatory world split procedure and is testing it on Hellscream. The way the process would work is that a user would log on, be prompted to choose one of two worlds, and when split day happens will be moved. Players that don't choose a world to move to would be moved to the same world as their guild master, if they aren't in a guild they'd be moved with the rest of their arena team, and if they aren't in either a guild or an arena team Blizzard will pick. Also, Blizzard may override your choice of a destination if the problem that caused the split isn't being resolved.They've got some good reasons for doing this, but I can see a lot of very bad things coming out of this. Guilds getting split up, friends getting split up, guild alliances getting torn apart. The reaction in guild chat when someone brought it to our attention was very negative, but I'm torn. I've seen what long queue times do to gameplay and raid attendance. What do you think? Do the good results outweigh the consequences of moving people around?
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Paid character transfer cooldown reduced
And not just reduced a little bit, it has been reduced a lot. It has gone from six months to a single month. So if you transferred a character at the beginning of September, you can go ahead and transfer again to any eligible realm for the standard fee of twenty five dollars.I wonder why they did this? I liked the rationale of having a 6 month cooldown, that being to prevent people with generally boorish behavior from jumping from server to server. But at the same time, if someone made a mistake in transferring to a server, it would be nice to be able to reverse it in a relatively short amount of time. And the cynic in me thinks that Blizzard simply sees this as a new revenue stream. But hey...no crime in that! Making money is what they are in business for. With the new, shorter cooldown, are you more likely to transfer knowing you can undo everything (for $25 of course) in a mere thirty days?
Update on Upcoming Character Transfers
Transfers to the new Norgannon and Thrall servers are still on hold until further notice, though CM Drysc posted on Saturday assuring us that preparations for the transfers continue, and that they have not been canceled. Drysc has also provided an update on transfers to new realms Black Dragonflight and Dalvengyr. Due to "gameplay-related concerns" the Khaz'goroth to Dalvengyr transfer has been dropped from the list, but the remaining transfers began this morning at 3:00 AM PST. These transfers end on Thursday, so if you're interested, get to it as soon as possible!
