World Closure Announcement

[Trixie_Me]

Leixy's estimates of player losses were between 5% and 20% and I think that's a fairly safe range. The first few server moves will probably be fairly uneventful. Towards the end, I think it will get ugly.

There is still plenty of time for Turbine to ameliorate some of the pain for all players, but it doesn't appear to be a priority.

[maartena]

Leixy's estimates of player losses were between 5% and 20% and I think that's a fairly safe range. The first few server moves will probably be fairly uneventful. Towards the end, I think it will get ugly.

There is still plenty of time for Turbine to ameliorate some of the pain for all players, but it doesn't appear to be a priority.

5-20% is really safe indeed, not really an estimate. Personally I think it is going to be closer to the 5% mark. Either way, it is going to be better for those who decide to keep playing.

[Benegon]

Because one German server would have been much bigger than Brandywine currently is. There are a lot of players on the German servers.

I'd also like to say as someone with characters on remaining servers, Landroval and Laurelin, I hope all goes well for the transferees. Our communites are warm and welcoming and the role playing community add events, music and immersion and a love of the story that enriches the game overall, and often makes world chat informative and full of discussions about the stories of Tolkien.

But you don't have to 'thee and thou', you don't have to be able to quote the Silmarrilion chapter and verse, and you don't have to RP. You just have to leave the RPers alone if it's not your thing.

This change isn't nice but it means we get to play the game we love for another few years with new friends. (hiya! former Silverlode kinnies) I hope you transferees will feel your sadness and loss of home worlds is worth that.

Meanwhile let's be gentle with ourselves, the team and other players, in game and in the forums.

I never knew so many people played on the German servers. I guess almost as many as the English servers.

[Linathrial]

The server closures were the most unwelcome news to me for all this year. I care about my names and my houses lot more than many other things, and I dislike crowds - and the playerbase of unpleasant people - quite a bit.

I knew my world is out, and naturally I with it. That's given.

There's no point after my history is gone.

Turbine will just consider us sour/bad apples and be glad we're gone. They will just keep their fingers crossed and hope new players will join and fill the people that left...and they probably will.

To think, that with some people here, that having to change our names or our Kin names transfering to another server doesn't really matter that much and we're just being whining cry babies. Well, it matters to me!

Everything that I have worked on in this game for the past 3 1/2 years as far as my characters, my Kin and their names and all my STUFF are UNIQUE and special to me and only me! Having to transfer and compete with other people on my "new" server is just unacceptable! Can you imagine, having to change your name on your "new" server, whether it be a character or your Kin and then having to see that every freakin' time you log into your "new" server? Are you freakin' crazy Turbine? Is that what I finacially supported for for the past 3 1/2 years, so you can kick me out of my server and then change my names and kin too?

Good night Irene!

[cdq1958]

RIP, Nimrodel... We always seemed like the "drama free" server in the early days.

Is everyone on a closing server sort of scattering, or is there a somewhat large chunk of folks from the closing one "unofficially" picking a destination?

And particular advice from Turbine on migration paths?

Turbine isn't going to give such advice, other than what the Dev Diary mentioned: Kin leaders then house owners, and so on. My main kin on Nimrodel mentioned going to Landroval and there were a few in world chat that mentioned Landroval. That reminds me, now that the list has been published, I should check for postings on the kin forum.

[Vyvyanne]

So I'm confused.

I play on Brandy now, but have toons on Riddermark that I want to bring over.

They say free transfers indefinitely, but then I read somewhere that there was only till the end of the year for free transfers? Will Brandy be closed until that period is over? Can I keep my toons on Ridder until Brandy is opened to transfers and then transfer over for free?

Yes, you can wait until Brandywine is open for transfers again and still transfer those characters for free. The limitation placed on the end of the year is that the closing worlds will no longer be available to play on in 2016, but the characters will still be available to move elsewhere in the Transfer system.

[monk_tbd]

Hi,

Does anyone else think it's pretty strange (and dare I say rather unfair?) that transfers between remaining worlds are prioritised over transfers from closing worlds to remaining worlds? Or is that just me?

You really think that there are a lot of people who would uproot from their current community and who would still have that community in the future to transfer off their server?
I could see a point to transfer off Brandywine to avoid the lag but overall there is hope that the new hardware will solve that.

Also if they would move off their server they would do so with the name they currently have and - unless it is from Brandywine as it is closed for transferring in - will therefore open up the same name slot on the server they just left.

So unless there is a mass exodus from Brandywine which I doubt will happen names should not be a problem.

Also if people transfer off of Brandywine I would expect them to be latecomers or recent transfer ins that will not want to risk any further lag even with new hardware. Then these people likely do not take a name that was in demand anyway, first as latecomers they had to pick a name that no one on Brnady had anyway or if they transferred in they have a "-1" or renamed them to something not in demand as well.

The ones that get last choices are the ones whose closing server transfers open up later than others. Those could be unlucky as someone else transfers in with that name previously and the policy kicks in.

[Karn_Evil_9]

I don't understand why all my characters should have to change names just to transfer to the RP server. If Turbine is winding back on servers and we have limited choice where to go then surely they can relax some of the RP rules. The RP people can still do their thing and new arrivals should be allowed to do theirs. Everybody is having to compromise and the RP servers were a bit of a luxury before with so many others to choose from.

Sermon over.

[Lilka]

I guess this is the end of the line for me. Been on Gilrain since not long after launch; I knew it would be one of the ones to go, but I was hoping I'd be able to keep my main's name wherever I moved. I checked name availability as soon as merges were announced and sadly I won't be able to. It's a stupid, small thing but after all the hours and love I've invested in her, I can't really imagine playing her with another name. She wouldn't be 'her' anymore. I had always thought I'd plug along all the way to Mordor but I don't really know how to feel right now.

Namarie, my fellow travellers on Gilrain. It's been a joy.

For people so attached to your names, you're really not reading the Name Policy are you?

The active player wins the name. If your namesake hasn't logged in in a year, YOU get to keep your name.

[elvenes]

because that's how it's always been. The rulesets stays, your chars might get a rename. There will Always be people who complain about names

[Lilka]

I don't understand why all my characters should have to change names just to transfer to the RP server. If Turbine is winding back on servers and we have limited choice where to go then surely they can relax some of the RP rules. The RP people can still do their thing and new arrivals should be allowed to do theirs. Everybody is having to compromise and the RP servers were a bit of a luxury before with so many others to choose from.

Sermon over.

If you want to keep silly/funny/rude names, go to Evernight.

[Vyvyanne]

What about the status if a server are normal oder rp ? Whats about for example with the german server belegaer? This is currently a Rp Server, but Arthena said they will be one rp server for each region (EU&USA) what does it mean? Please make it clear.

I said one per region, but I did not say ONLY one. I suppose I should have worded it as At Least one. No RP rules or statuses are changing on any of the 2 RP and 1 RE worlds.

[elvenes]

I said one per region, but I did not say ONLY one. I suppose I should have worded it as At Least one. No RP rules or statuses are changing on any of the 2 RP and 1 RE worlds.

Vyvyanne I love you XD this will put any server competition away, thankfully

[monk_tbd]

because that's how it's always been. The rulesets stays, your chars might get a rename. There will Always be people who ##### about names

I personally never use names like xxSlayerBearxx or whatever as i like to think about proper names but I wonder how these forced RP enforced renamings did work:

Did the person get a rename token? I remember that they stopped giving some as the offenders were just griefing the GMs and renamed them again to something outside of the naming policies.

Now if xxSlayerBearxx transfers to an RP server that names is surely not taken so the player won't get a rename token.
Then if rename tokens are not given out on forced renames then that person will not have a chance even if he wants to to properly rename his character for free as he would if he would transfer in with a taken name.
I mean you could get around by creating xxSlayerBearxx before transferring on the target server with a f2p account but that's not really how it should go I would think (as in i have to break the naming policy to be able to rename my transferring character properly)

I see this as possibly problematic on the EU side as the number of english non RP servers is rather small so people might want to go to Laurelin instead.

[Karn_Evil_9]

If you want to keep silly/funny/rude names, go to Evernight.

And if Evernight get's totally rammed and unplayable? The point is times change so might some of the rules.

[Bombadil411]

I guess this is the end of the line for me. Been on Gilrain since not long after launch; I knew it would be one of the ones to go, but I was hoping I'd be able to keep my main's name wherever I moved. I checked name availability as soon as merges were announced and sadly I won't be able to. It's a stupid, small thing but after all the hours and love I've invested in her, I can't really imagine playing her with another name. She wouldn't be 'her' anymore. I had always thought I'd plug along all the way to Mordor but I don't really know how to feel right now.

Namarie, my fellow travellers on Gilrain. It's been a joy.

How exactly did you confirm that your name was unavailable?

[Leixy]

Meneldor was not selected as one of the five LOTRO NA Servers to remain operating. It will be the last server to open for transfers, based on the posted list. As I understand it, the first pair of servers to be open for transfer out will be Elindilmir (NA) and Estil (EU), which should open for outbound transfers in about 2 weeks (Aug 17 or so). The tentative sequence and schedule will be two servers (1 NA, 1 EU, by the list) to open for transfer every two weeks, about as noted below:

Aug 17 - Elendilmir (NA) & Estel (EU)

Aug 31 - Riddermark (NA) & Gilrain (EU)

Sept 14 - Firefoot (NA) & Eldar (EU)

Sept 28 - Nimrodel (NA) & Anduin (EU)

Oct 12 - Windfola (NA) & Morthond (EU)

Oct 26 - Imladris (NA) & Maiar (EU)

Nov 9 - Darrowdelf (NA) & Vanyar (EU)

Nov 23 - Silverlode (NA) & Withywindle (EU)

Dec 7 - Vilya (NA) & Snowbourn (EU)

Dec 21 - Meneldor (NA)

This is tentative and subject to change;

Where did these dates come from? Anyone have a link? Or is he a Turbine employee in disguise?

[Fiesty]

My husband and I picked the world we picked 8 years ago because it was not that populated. So having to move to the "Bigger" worlds is not making us happy. Intellectually I understand why, however now things like the treasure hunts, festivals, and hobnogians (sp) are all going to be 100x more annoying. Thanks Turbine for making this game even more frustrating!

[Lilka]

He just made them up based on an assumption two new servers would move every two weeks.

Created havoc across a variety of world chats in the process. The post could really do with being deleted, people are taking it seriously.

[Snowlock]

I said one per region, but I did not say ONLY one. I suppose I should have worded it as At Least one. No RP rules or statuses are changing on any of the 2 RP and 1 RE worlds.

Care to share some good news with the bad? Tell us a little about Minas Tirith, how big the region is, will it connect to Rohan? After, are we going to Mordor or is there a different region in mind?

[GraySable]

I went to all the remaining severs and tried to see if my name was available and my name for my toons (which I have had since closed beta) are taken. I really don't want to have to rename my toons. I am so disappointed that over the last several years I have sunk over a thousand dollars into this game and now I basically have to rename cause some noob took my names and saved it.

[Fiesty]

Leixy's estimates of player losses were between 5% and 20% and I think that's a fairly safe range. The first few server moves will probably be fairly uneventful. Towards the end, I think it will get ugly.

There is still plenty of time for Turbine to ameliorate some of the pain for all players, but it doesn't appear to be a priority.

Really? Are you positive about this, or are you just saying this because your happy? This is not a happy time for alot of people and for those who trying to make up their mind about leaving, it is posts like this, ones that believe everything is going to be great, that is really affront to those who are being made to lose years and years of hard work.


This was in response to Maarteen's (sorry don't know how to spell it.) post after the quote.

[Draconfier]

Looking for a Blue-Named Response to this below from the Developer Diary:

Beginning August 3rd the service will be available for copying characters to the Bullroarer Test World. Free moves will begin later in August between the ten worlds (5 US and 5 EU) that will be remaining available after the end of this year. This is just the beginning of the process.

We will be monitoring the transfers between those worlds for a couple weeks and if all is going well, we will move on to the next step of the process which will be to turn off Auction Houses on the first two of the sunsetting worlds and allow characters, kinships and shared items on those worlds to move to the ten remaining worlds.

Once again we will monitor the moves and if all is going well we will move on to the next two worlds and so on until we feel comfortable with opening transfers off of all of the impacted worlds. The theme here is a slow and steady migration.

On October 1st, transfers between the remaining ten will once again become paid, however transfers off of the impacted worlds will remain free indefinitely.


So if you're a server towards the bottom of the list; lets say Meneldor, and we follow the two week timeline, they won't be able to move till December, and the October 1st shuts down free inter-server transfers, so how are characters/servers that don't make the allowed move until after October 1st treated, they won't have the ability to potentially find a good fit like those that get to transfer before the October 1st cut-off. I think that date needs to be adjusted, or instead each server gets a set amount of time to move freely between worlds.

[Guhrasoh]

I personally never use names like xxSlayerBearxx or whatever as i like to think about proper names but I wonder how these forced RP enforced renamings did work:

Did the person get a rename token? I remember that they stopped giving some as the offenders were just griefing the GMs and renamed them again to something outside of the naming policies.

The GMs force renamed those chars to something lore friendly and gave the player a warning, if the player didn't like the new name he had to buy a rename token or create a new char.

Now if xxSlayerBearxx transfers to an RP server that names is surely not taken so the player won't get a rename token.
Then if rename tokens are not given out on forced renames then that person will not have a chance even if he wants to to properly rename his character for free as he would if he would transfer in with a taken name.

I don't see the problem. If you know your name doesn't fit on an RP server send a ticket to a GM with your intend to transfer and a fitting name of your choice and they'll probably rename you, if not you'll either have to choose a different server or buy a rename token yourself.

[Vyvyanne]

Hi all just a couple clarifications for questions I am seeing in this thread:

1) Timelines: We begin with Bullroarer at some point this afternoon or first thing tomorrow. We are running final tests on that environment. You will only see the transfer button if you are in the Bullroarer client. So please feel free to get it downloaded and set up so you can join us later in testing out the new service!

After Bullroarer proves successful, then we will open up the Live World transfers. First between the top 10, and then we begin by opening the first two closing worlds shortly after. If all of the servers are going well and we are not running into any major issues, we can move up the timeline (without affecting the closure dates) and move to opening more than 2 worlds at a time. But we are going to start slow and steady so that we can respond to any potential issues.

All the timelines I have given here or in the articles are estimations. We are a live service so we have to be able to react and adjust and will do so if need be. This includes the closure date at the beginning of 2016, although I do not expect that to need to slip out.

2) In-game mail and rewards boxes: At the last minute we found a problem in the in-game mail about the closures and the rewards boxes, so we had to pull them from the release. We are working on a patch to correct these issues and also add the names of the Russian servers to the title picker box. We should have this out in the upcoming weeks, probably around the same time that we start the first if the transfers.

3) Populations: Currently Brandywine's population is many times larger than the next largest world in either region. This is why it will be closed to transfer until we have it fully on new hardware and have seen improvements in it's performance. The other worlds have plenty of room to grow in their current location and will be even more suited to the higher populations once they are moved. However we will be monitoring all of it as we go along. One of the benefits of this move is that if we see concerns, we can put more hardware support behind and world that appears to need it.

We are all very sad to see the closure of the wonderful communities that have gown over the years in each of these worlds. We have done extensive analysis of both the current populations and play styles as well as the capabilities of our move, hardware and software. After taking all of it into consideration, we feel that this combination of servers is the right one. We hope that all of you stay with us and find that our community gets even stronger with the availability of more friends to adventure with.