Earlier this week, BioWare allowed players to test out the new high population server tech they planned to implement on our current servers. Today, that server tech is being added, and as a result, we’re seeing the final phase of our rather lengthy SWTOR server transfer and merge process. This final phase includes the consolidation and eventual removal of the originally-announced origin servers that had designated destination servers, and also, as a surprise– a few extra servers.

Yes, that’s right, some of the servers players were encouraged to moved to are now forcefully being consolidated into another server altogether. These players will find themselves having to play the choose-the-name game again today. There only seem to be a handful of new servers that were added to this consolidation list, thankfully, and the end result of all these server merges will hopefully be better in the long run. All players on any of the affected origin servers who didn’t take part in the transfers will find their characters moved.

Yesterday, BioWare launched a brand new test server to specifically test some new high population server technology. Remember back in May when the team talked about “mega-servers”? This is that tech. Here is a preview of the news article:

In order to provide a better overall gameplay experience we’re getting ready to introduce new high population server tech that will allow us to significantly increase current server populations. Once we introduce new high population server tech, any characters remaining on an origin server will be moved to a high population destination server.

With this change, we’ll finally see the final phase to our server transfers and mergers. When the server tech fully launches, characters already on destination servers will find their servers upgraded with the new tech, which means that our servers will hopefully be more stable for the upcoming free-to-play model switch. Our servers will also, of course, house more players.

Here is this week’s Q&A Community Response, where we take some of last week’s questions and corresponding answers, and provide some of the feedback straight from the community. Make sure and check out the full Q&A posts for all of the questions, because we’re only going to be covering some of the highlights.

This week’s Q&A, which can be found here, consisted of five questions. A couple questions generated some feedback, but this week we saw an interesting shift– most of the player feedback was actually based off the questions BioWare chose not to respond to. It seems that according to many players, the community Q&A is definitely losing some steam. Keep reading to find out more, and make sure and check out the complete community thread where this feedback is taken from.

Thanks to the somewhat-confusing manner that SWTOR server transfers were handled, some players are left in an odd predicament. These players have characters on both their designated origin server and designated destination server, and not enough new character slots to accommodate their characters. Without the ability to transfer characters elsewhere and a limited number of character slots available, what exactly happens in this situation?

It seems unfair to expect these players to delete the higher-level characters, especially since SWTOR is currently one of the most alt-friendly MMOs on the market and actually rewards players with alts. BioWare hasn’t said much on this matter, until last Friday:

Originally posted by JovethGonzalez (Source)

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Hi folks,

Just wanted to hop on here to let you all know that at no point will we be deleting your characters later this summer when we automatically move any remaining characters from origin servers onto designated destination servers. More details about how this will work out will be forthcoming, but I can assure you that automatic character deletion is not going to happen for this upcoming move.

Thanks everyone!

Hey, look, another one of BioWare’s Soon™ lines! However, for players in this predicament, at least it’s something.

Yesterday started out to be a good day for SWTOR news. We found out about the free trial program, friend recruitment speeder reward, and free week for former players. On a more, well, not-so-positive note, we also found out about the next step in BioWare’s grand server transfer plan– the eventual closing of the designated origin servers.

BioWare is currently offering rewards for players who have active accounts on SWTOR and have taken part in the server transfer program (or just happen to be on one of the destination servers). This means that both players who have already transferred and players that transfer now will be eligible. It seems that the goal here is to get more players transferred and off of the quickly-emptying origin servers.

All of the details can found here. The rewards are pictured above, a little Gannifari companion and 25 Black Hole Commendations. Players eligible for these rewards will receive both, and each character transferred will receive them.

Originally posted by CourtneyWoods (Source)

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The response to the Free Character Transfer Service so far has been fantastic. Hundreds of thousands of players have already taken advantage of this free service to move their characters to new servers where it’s easier to find groups and play with friends. This initial service is still available and allows qualifying characters to be transferred at no charge from selected origin servers to selected destination servers.

In appreciation for the community’s support of the Free Character Transfer service, we are giving all characters on qualifying servers (including all destination servers) an in-game pet, the Gannifari, and 25 Black Hole Commendations to help purchase high level gear. Visit www.swtor.com/transfer for a list of qualifying servers.

If you haven’t moved your characters yet, it’s not too late. Transfer now to receive these in-game rewards!

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SWTOR’s limited vision of server transfers has been rather complicated for players on the various RP-PvP servers around the world. Earlier this week, BioWare provided the three EU RP-PvP servers with better transfer options. Yesterday, players on the West Coast RP-PvP server, Ajunta Pall, were finally given multiple transfer options as well.

The situation on Ajunta Pall wasn’t quite the same as on the EU servers, since in the NA case, the two RP-PvP servers both shared the same language, but for many players, the time zone difference (West Coast to East Coast) and latency difference were detrimental to their game time. Luckily, BioWare went ahead and offered the players some other choices.

Over the weekend, we had another update to the server transfer situation on the three EU RP-PvP servers (Lord Calypho, Jen’jidai, and Huntmaster) that were originally excluded from transfers, then given a single transfer option that didn’t take the players’ playstyle preferences into consideration. Finally, these players are now able to choose between a transfer to a PvP server, and a transfer to an RP server. Players who have already transferred and would like to change their server will have to contact Customer Service in order to do so.

We thought we’d post a follow-up to the situation of BioWare leaving three EU servers without any server transfer options. Yesterday, BioWare finally issued a response– and a solution:

Originally posted by AllisonBerryman (Source)

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We wanted to clarify the current situation with the European RP-PvP servers Lord Calypho, Jen’jidai, and Huntmaster. Our goal for SWTOR players with these free character transfers is to be able to offer a destination server for players to have the best gameplay experience possible. As such, due to the unique nature of having only one European RP-PvP server per language, we wanted to give the three aforementioned servers the choice to transfer to a destination PvP server. As of right now, Lord Calypho characters can transfer to Tomb of Freedon Nadd, Jen’jidai to Jar’Kai Sword, and Huntmaster to Darth Nihilus.

It’s good news to hear these servers will have transfer options. The bad news? BioWare is effectively destroying any concept of an EU RP-PvP server, and instead, lumping these players as PvP players when in fact, many would have preferred a straight RP option.

Despite the gloomy storm of complaints on the official forums, a large portion of SWTOR players are actually very pleased with the server transfer process so far. Evidence of these happy players is seen on most of the destination servers, where populations thrive, groups are readily formed, and planets and fleets buzz with activity. It’s nice to see life on our servers again. While browsing the forum topics last night, one in particular caught my eye that was positive.

Here is the first post in that thread:

“Dear Bioware,

I’m sorry to report that despite transfers, queues, nerfs, changes, redesigns and new content – That I remain mostly happy.

I would like to see a few things changed with the game, it’s by no means perfect, but these games never are. Personally I’d like to see a few more things made legacy wide such as datacrons, codexs, commendations etc.

Keep up the mostly good work.”

The thread goes on, with players chiming in, stating that they, too, are pleased with transfers, and remain mostly happy with the state of SWTOR despite the community’s negativity toward the game. What’s the one thing that will keep the game alive? That’s right– the players.