Server Moves and Migrations

Use "Dev Tracker" to find these posts in the LOTRO forums. (This page is in reverse date order - most recent on top.)

27 July 2015

Originally posted by Frelorn:

"World Transfers"

We are finally ready to reveal the details on the new World Transfer process, the consolidation of LOTRO's worlds, and their movement to a brand new data center. We appreciate your patience as we have worked to make the new transfer process as well-rounded, simple, and effortless as possible. The first part of this article will discuss our timeline and the second part will go over the details of the new transfer features themselves. So grab a goblet of Elvish Wine and kick back, because this will be a long one.

Read the full article at the above URL - Using the pulldowns at the top of the Forums - "The game / Articles / World Transfers" or at World Transfers - July 2015

14 July 2015

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

"Character Transfer Service Temporarily Offline"

As of today we will be turning off the LOTRO Character Transfer Service website and removing tokens from the Marketplace. We apologize for the short notice, but the service has been having issues leading to a poor user experience and with plans to replace it in the short term, we feel it is best to take it down now. If you have attempted a transfer in the last couple of weeks and experienced any difficulties, please contact Customer Support and they will be happy to assist you. Otherwise all Transfers will be unavailable until we roll out the new service.

Thank you for your patience, Vyvyanne

21 May 2015

See comments in: Producer's Letter - May 2015

20 March 2015

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

"Can transfer system and server build out be separated?"

Yes, they can. However the new hardware and location will be better set up to handle increased numbers, thus we do not want to encourage a large migration with the new transfer system until that hardware is in place and ready to go. And for those saying do this before Update 16, the hardware build out is a team that does not touch game code. Delaying 16 would do nothing to speed up the process of the build out.

"Update 16 is getting ready fr launch but no public discussion about PvMP has occurred"

Correct. The PvMP improvements are not part of Update 16, they will come after.

19 March 2015

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

"Where are the servers moving?"

So I will answer this question. Part of the delay is that we are doing a multistage move of servers from the Boston area to a location in New Jersey for our US servers and from Boston to Amsterdam for the EU servers. This is not just a new location but new hardware, new transfer service, OS upgrades, etc. A LOT of work :) And it is not just LOTRO getting this treatment, thus the delays as Turbine level teams handle the gigantic move.

In the meantime the LOTRO specific team is focusing on completing Update 16 and getting it into beta in the next few weeks.

So while we focus on that release and give the other teams a chance to move through more of the set-up work where will probably be little new info on the transfers. Once U16 is shipped we will be closer to testing the new transfer features and able to give this effort our full attention as well as give you more regular updates and details as they shake out.

Thank you for understanding,

3 March 2015

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

U16 will indeed happen before any transfer changes. In fact this is one of the reasons we have had little to talk about. With the pushing out of hardware updates, I have had engineers refocus on helping complete U16 initiatives like the Legendary Items Upgrades and come back to transfer improvements once that is locked in. But more to come on that soon as we start ramping up U16 testing and telling you all about it.

Sadly it does not look like EU <-> US Transfers will be possible. You can always start a new character on any world you wish to play on, regardless of region, but we will not be able to support moving an already created character from an EU database to US and vice versa.

2 March 2015

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

Hi all, My apologies for being off the forums these last few weeks. I have been extremely busy. Progress is coming along on both the new transfer from launcher feature as well as new hardware setups. Hopefully in a week or two we can post more details on the new server transfer features such as the multiple character moves, the guild disband and re-formation and naming conflict changes. For now I will say we have at least a couple more months before all of this gets underway. I wanted to get the transfers started towards the closer end of that, but then based on feedback and research into performance concerns, have decided to wait until we have our new hardware in place so as not to cause undue stress on already highly populated worlds. Due to snow and some other set backs we do not expect new hardware to be online until summer. Thus the timeline is pushed back a bit. For those concerned about notice for server closures. We will be providing at least a couple months notice for players on which servers might close before that happens. We have lots of time and will make sure you have all the information you need to prepare before anything happens. Vyvyanne

30 January 2015

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

Thank you everyone for your continued patience on waiting for details regarding our server transfer improvements, hardware and consolidation efforts. This post will be one of a series in which I will present some more details on our plans. I won’t be able to answer all of your questions as we are still planning and building the systems, but I will answer what I can. We have many teams working on this transformation that could take the remainder of the year to complete, so I am providing information as it becomes solid enough to share. So how will we improve the transfer process so that I don’t lose my stuff, you ask? By adding the following features: New Launcher service: We are changing our character and account transfer service to occur in the game launcher itself. No longer will you need to find a website to conduct a transfer. You just have to launch the game and go from there! Account transfer: This new checkbox in the Server Transfer interface will allow the transfer of all account level items from one server to another. These items include the following: Account Shared Currency (Mithril Coins & Skirmish ) Shared Storage Housing Storage Wardrobe Destiny Kinship transfer: We are working on a system to transfer some of your kinship information data to the new server. More details as this feature develops. Naming Priorities: One of the main concerns is of players keeping their names. We are looking into a change in the way name conflicts are handled to give priority to the active characters. More details as this feature develops. Region transfers: Existing characters on EU and US worlds will have a data conflict moving to a different region, so we are only able to support transfers of characters from an EU world to another EU world and US to US. You will note that we have now labeled all worlds on the launcher with their region. However, there is no restrictions on where you might start a new character and play based on your physical location, so feel free to try out new worlds in which ever region you feel most comfortable. We aim to have this new service available in early spring this year with beta testing on Bullroarer before that time. We hope that you will join us to give feedback and stress tests to this all new and improved aspect of our service!

Originally posted by Tuco: Thank you for the update, Vyvyanne. It looks very promising. Good information, and it raised a couple of questions for me. Two questions on this: 1. If we're moving some characters to different servers (e.g. one to an RP kinship on Laurelin and another to a music kinship on Landroval), can we take some of the currency and marks and shards and wardrobe (for example) to each, or will it be everything from one server to another server? 2. What happens if the receiving bin is full -- do we need to have enough empty shared storage and wardrobe and housing storage to accept everything from the old server, or will there be some kind of overflow system to allow later pruning on the new server? Thanks - [edit - oops, I showed one going to EU and one going to US. That's not a relevant part of my question, since I realize that's not going to be an option. I meant "one each to different available servers."

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

1. For splitting your characters between destination worlds, you will need to choose which one gets all the account items. We can only send the account data to one world. 2. There will be an overflow if destination inventory is full Housing questions: More details on the changes to that system as we get closer to finalizing design on it, same for Name conflicts. Can I choose the world my character goes to? Yes. You will be able to choose which world each of your characters goes to individually or select all the characters on one world and send them all to the other world of your choosing at once.[/QUOTE]

Originally posted by Tirian Hammerfist: Yeah, I noticed that with copies too - I just hope that its the same for transfers, and this is something that definitely needs to be clarified :)

Originally posted by Vyvanne: All items that currently transfer with Characters will still transfer, including character bound items and storage.

20 January 2015

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

I would like to allow people to start migrating to the higher population servers for free before the transfer improvements are added, for those that wish to do so and aim to do that soon. I am just doing some double checking on concerns about overcrowding before I do so. Even if you move before improvements are made, your account items will remain on the old server to be moved when that comes available, so that is not the concern. We just have not moved the larger worlds over to their new hardware and data center yet, so we want to make sure we are not going to make performance worse before that happens by encouraging a mass migration.

Expect some updates from me on transfers in the next week.

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

I know there are reports of lag on Brandywine especially in the PVMP areas. I play on Brandywine and do not experience these issues, but I may not be playing in the areas, at the times players are running into problems. So I am gathering info on that to determine if we have an issue on that particular server that might be made worse by moving more players to it before we improve our hardware infrastructure. Yes hardware can affect performance and newer hardware and a better location could do improve upon latency. Player population is not always the cause for latency.

What I dont want to do is make everyone's experience worse in the meantime.

As for free transfers after improvements are made. Yes, after we improve the transfer process the plan is to keep transfers to the most populated servers free for some time to allow players to move over to those servers using the new tools. How long those will remain free is still to be determined.

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

Players of Brandywine!

Please help me in gathering some data around the lag you are seeing in game.

If you can, please post to this thread answering the following questions:

1. What time of day do you experience lag?

2. What zones/ regions/ instances are you in at the time?

3. Are there a number of other players in your field of view when you experience it?

4. What approximate region of the real world are you located in?

Thank you very much! This data will help us make some important decisions about player migrations and hopefully help remedy the issues you are seeing.

Cheers,

Vyvyanne

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

If it seems unfair or iffy, I wouldn't worry about it. Turbine will figure it out. They will not make people charge to move a character from a server that has been closed; that would be the worst business decision ever, alienating all players who don't play now, so don't worry about it. They will almost 100% give a permanent free transfers for any character that is still on a closing/closed server.

I think she was referring to it being free for everyone, not just people on closing servers, and since they haven't been announced yet, I don't think they would limit who can transfer for free.

Also, any character bound stuff in your wallet has and will transfer with the character, so don't worry about that. It's only account-wide stuff, which is very very rare to exist and not be put in the wallet, regardless of owning Premium Wallet or not. The main I can think of is the Rift Armor Gems... (meaning they dont go in by defeault. Marks, Meds, Seals, and even Instance Tokens do go in I think, no matter your wallet status)?

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

This :) If your server is ever closed, you will always have the option to move characters from that server to another open world for free. But transfers between already high populated worlds may not remain free, as we do not want to encourage a constant hoping back and forth between servers.

As for character items, we are working on making sure everything your character or account has will move with you. There may be some edge-case items that will come out in testing, but we will have a clear listing of what those items are.

Originally posted by Vyvanne:

I will have threads on transfer details including Kinships, Housing and names as well as schedules in the coming week.

Current Status: EU Servers

20 January 2015

• A description of the current understanding of events:

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?562441-Some-clarifications-as-i-understand-them

Note that Frelorn has stickied this thread.

Originally posted by Ellemere:

Hopefully this thread can shed some light on the common misconceptions and just downright false information being touted both ingame and on the forums. It should clear up a lot of things peole are asking and will save you hunting the forums for answers. [B]

What is happening - the EU server move.

Turbine is moving the EU servers to the Netherlands, to assist in reducing ping times and hopefully reducing latency. With the possibility of improved and newer hardware.

The EU servers are as follows.

• [EN] Eldar
• [EN] Evernight
• [EN] Gilrain
• [EN] Withwindle
• [EN] Snowbourne
• [EN-RP] Laurelin

• [DE] Maiar
• [DE] Anduin
• [DE-RP] Belegaer
• [DE] Vanya
• [DE] Morthond
• [DE] Gwaihir

• [FR-RP] Estel
• [FR] Sirannon

All that is happening here is that the data will be transferred and service will be as normal. No takeover of service by Codemasters or any other third party. (This seems to be a huge concern on Eldar at least and the source of a lot of misinformation).

The above move has nothing to do with the consolidation to take place at a later date other than perhaps the newer hardware will better be able to cope with the increased amounts of people on the servers they move to.

What's Happening - Playerbase Consolidation

This is where it gets tricky, with the limited information we have rumours and misinformation are abound.

What we know

• Servers will not be merged and their will be no forced data merge
• Players will have their choice of which server to move to
• Some servers are likely to close but only after a large grace period and even then the characters will still be available for transfer
• There is a preliminary list of servers likely to close but that is not set in stone and is subject to change
• It will not be possible to transfer NA-EU or EU-NA
• Cross Server chat/grouping is a no go
• They are looking into allowing kin leaders to move your kin as a whole, but you will still be able to make your own individual choice if you happen to be on a server that is on the list to close.
• They are also looking at allowing us to move currently locked items with us ... such as Mithril, Marks, Meds and Seals is what i took it as.
• If your server is ever closed, you will always have the option to move characters from that server to another open world for free. But transfers between already high populated worlds may not remain free, as we do not want to encourage a constant hoping back and forth between servers.
• Transfers to the higher population servers will start sooner rather than later, for those that wish to move before the transfer improvements are added.
• The timeline for hardware upgrades has been pushed back until summer. Thus the timeline for transfers is pushed back a bit.
• Update 16 will be released prior to any transfer enhancements being made.
• Even if you move before improvements are made, your account items will remain on the old server to be moved when that comes available.
• As for character items, we are working on making sure everything your character or account has will move with you. There may be some edge-case items that will come out in testing, but we will have a clear listing of what those items are.

Hopefully this clear up some of the confusion about what is happening. I know it has helped my kin as i explained it to them.

Updated 15.03.15