Our latest Letter to the Players has arrived

Finaurion

Seafaring elf
Interesting. I wonder if the American and European server transfer restrictions will still apply to the new 64 bit servers, or if we'll be able to eventually transfer to either one regardless of origin server?
 
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I am comfortable confirming the new 64-bit servers are not legendary. All other questions will be handled by Sev and Cord when they sit down for a discussion with you all, after the holidays.
Then you made a horrible thing releasing this poorly explained letter. Would be better to keep it for after Christmas.
Now I have players with anxiety about the future of our kinship and community.

Congrats.
 

tanlis

Member
At least initially the transfers to these new 64 bit worlds will not be from our 32 bit worlds, and will instead focus on our closed legacy servers. We'll have more details about the specifics of our plans in January.
Wait...your telling me if I never moved a character off of Silverlode, I can transfer them to the new 64bit worlds? But if I'm on Landroval, etc...I can't?

Who made that decision?! 🤦‍♂️
 

Shmooz

Well-known member
What clarity are you looking for specifically, Shmooz? If I can answer, I will.

Mainly what others have already written.

People are speculating on stuff like this and are drawing the worst conclusions:
-) will severs merge
-) will people have an option to transfer or be forced
-) will kinships and communities be split as some will want to play on eg European 64 bit servers while others might not want to transfer
-) will transfer have a price tag? If so, the fear of splitting communities is even amplified
-) what happens to character names people are attached to when multiple people of the same name transfer to new servers
-) how will the current servers be support afterward
-) can we transfer from all current server onto new ones?
-) will there be limits on player numbers per server?

The vague announcement leaves too much speculation on all of these questions. I think it unwise to leave players guessing for weeks
 

Euphemism

Member
as a returning player with many old characters gathering dust on Vilya, being offered the opportunity to recover them is welcome news. However I wonder why that was the choice, since players have asked for character recovery for a long time and it was deemed not a good use of SSG resources. As recently as September I was asking about character recovery and was told there were no plans to offer it again. So what about this situation, or the 64-bit servers, make this the best option? Is it technically easier? Or is offering transfers from existing servers a problem for some reason?
 

Oghren

Well-known member
At least initially the transfers to these new 64 bit worlds will not be from our 32 bit worlds, and will instead focus on our closed legacy servers. We'll have more details about the specifics of our plans in January.
Oh wow!
That is even better news!
 

Euphemism

Member
as a returning player with many old characters gathering dust on Vilya, being offered the opportunity to recover them is welcome news. However I wonder why that was the choice, since players have asked for character recovery for a long time and it was deemed not a good use of SSG resources. As recently as September I was asking about character recovery and was told there were no plans to offer it again. So what about this situation, or the 64-bit servers, make this the best option? Is it technically easier? Or is offering transfers from existing servers a problem for some reason?
To elaborate a bit, focusing on legacy server transfers seems like a strange choice because in many cases these characters have been sitting for over a decade and the players have either left lotro or moved on with new characters on existing servers.

Are you trying to bring back old players with the offer to revive characters?

Are you looking for an option that doesn’t fracture existing server communities or present the dilemma of choosing who gets to transfer (if more people want to transfer than the new servers can accommodate)?

I would love to revive my old characters but then I’d have toons on 3 different servers. Kind of a login nightmare.

The more I think of it, the dilemma of how to populate the new servers is really hard. Either you devise some lottery system which would probably satisfy nobody. Or you open it to anyone and create a stampede. Or you open to legacy players and new characters. That might be the best choice (if im not missing one).
 

tanlis

Member
as a returning player with many old characters gathering dust on Vilya, being offered the opportunity to recover them is welcome news. However I wonder why that was the choice, since players have asked for character recovery for a long time and it was deemed not a good use of SSG resources. As recently as September I was asking about character recovery and was told there were no plans to offer it again. So what about this situation, or the 64-bit servers, make this the best option? Is it technically easier? Or is offering transfers from existing servers a problem for some reason?
Now maybe things have changed, but I talked to a former SSG dev a couple years ago and how much of the issue with migrating characters from legacy servers to current was largely due to the database difference. The legacy servers use MS SQL and current ones use Postgres SQL.

There might have been other issues, but that was the thing they pointed out as being one of the biggest challenges.
 
I am OVERJOYED at the idea of recovering my original characters from Gilrain and having them on 64-bit servers in EU. My wife is telling me 'doe niet zo raar' :D
 

Babble

Well-known member
Interesting. I wonder if the American and European server transfer restrictions will still apply to the new 64 bit servers, or if we'll be able to eventually transfer to either one regardless of origin server?
I believe there will always be a divide. I think it has to do with trade and business rules, taxes, etc.
 

JohnMHammer

Well-known member
I believe there will always be a divide. I think it has to do with trade and business rules, taxes, etc.
No, there are database incompatibilities. There are players from all over the world on every server.

Transferring characters from the old, closed servers or from either of the existing two server clusters (NA and EU) or from one of the three existing Legendary Servers should not pose a problem since characters from any of those sources can be copied to Bullroarer during open test periods.
 
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Babble

Well-known member
The more I think of it, the dilemma of how to populate the new servers is really hard. Either you devise some lottery system which would probably satisfy nobody. Or you open it to anyone and create a stampede. Or you open to legacy players and new characters. That might be the best choice (if im not missing one).

Or you migrate the existing servers intact and preserve long standing communities instead of throwing every last server into chaos.
 

Babble

Well-known member
No, there are database incompatibilities. There are players from all over the world on every server.

Transferring characters from the old, closed servers or from either of the existing two server clusters (NA and EU) or from one of the three existing Legendary Servers should not pose a problem since characters from any of those sources can be copied to Bullroarer during open test periods.
When Mordor first opened and people wondered if it could become a permanent server, the question was asked if the possibility to transfer between US and European servers would be possible when the 64bit servers were live. The answer was no. So either a) there are incompatibilities in the brand new databases or b) there are other, business reasons (taxes, etc) or c) both.
 

istvana

This *is* the other place.
So the announcement said transfers will be allowed - and the clarification says transfers will not be allowed except from dead worlds. The tiny handful of characters that were abandoned there by players that could have moved them for free but did not.

To say this "clarification" came as a shock would be an understatement. You REALLY should change the announcement - and fast - because no one will read it the way you clarified it to mean.

Also - as clarified - the announcement says that if anyone wants to play on a 64-bit server for the foreseeable future they need to start new characters. Since upgrading the existing servers is not on the roadmap at least for the first part of the year.

You do realize that many people will do precisely this? Lowering population drastically on all server. Breaking up kinships and communities. Leading to many people that do not want to start over and do not want to be second class citizens on second or third-rate servers leaving the game.

Someone above said that this was good news. No. it is not.
 

The Traveller

New member
If I can answer, I will.
Hello!
I will be grateful if you clarify plans for:
- renewal of the Kinship system, which initially was planned to be done this year
- progress on updating the game interface, which has been going on for a very long time
 

Euan

Member
New 64 bit servers sounds great, there are so many limitations on the current 32 bit ones! I don’t really understand why so many feathers seem ruffled when this can only be objectively a good thing.

Plus, the letter is pretty clear we’ll get more info in January.

i would hope, as i think others have said that when we get the option to move from the current live servers to these new ones, that it’s free (at least for a time), and the we can move US -> EU without restriction. I‘d assume the current 32 bit servers will be turned into legacy ones in time.

i thought the announcement was pretty clear, and I’m excited to learn more
 

Shmooz

Well-known member
So the announcement said transfers will be allowed - and the clarification says transfers will not be allowed except from dead worlds. The tiny handful of characters that were abandoned there by players that could have moved them for free but did not.

To say this "clarification" came as a shock would be an understatement. You REALLY should change the announcement - and fast - because no one will read it the way you clarified it to mean.

Also - as clarified - the announcement says that if anyone wants to play on a 64-bit server for the foreseeable future they need to start new characters. Since upgrading the existing servers is not on the roadmap at least for the first part of the year.

You do realize that many people will do precisely this? Lowering population drastically on all server. Breaking up kinships and communities. Leading to many people that do not want to start over and do not want to be second class citizens on second or third-rate servers leaving the game.

Someone above said that this was good news. No. it is not.

We should still wait for some really fleshed out information on how this whole thing will go down before we sharpen our pitch forks.
They should have known though that players that sank close to two decades into a game will be very concerned with vague news like this that might have a significant impact on long standing communities.
 

Karac Avalron

Well-known member
New 64 bit servers sounds great, there are so many limitations on the current 32 bit ones! I don’t really understand why so many feathers seem ruffled when this can only be objectively a good thing.

Plus, the letter is pretty clear we’ll get more info in January.

i would hope, as i think others have said that when we get the option to move from the current live servers to these new ones, that it’s free (at least for a time), and the we can move US -> EU without restriction. I‘d assume the current 32 bit servers will be turned into legacy ones in time.

i thought the announcement was pretty clear, and I’m excited to learn more

The letter is crystal clear. What is also crystal clear is drama is back on the menu. Lets do something for posterity sake because you will see in the next week or two how the quote below will be twisted into "THEY ARE DESTROYING OUR SERVER" (basically)

Thank you for opening new 64 bit servers SSG, looking forward to it.

In the early part of the first quarter of 2025, we plan to open new 64-bit servers in Europe and the United States. The new servers will be open to all players and will not require VIP status to access.
 

dunford

Well-known member
I feel I'm hammering at a cold forge, but are there any plans at all to consolidate and improve the crafting system? It's been a jumbled up mess for a decade.
 
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