I have two idea's.

1.  Why don't give all players, the option to move 1 character to another server once a year.

2.  Give all players the option one time to move 1 character + 1 Alt to whatever server they wish.

yes, and always yes, we want a merge.

Hanzyl and Gretyl wrote:

You know they won't release the subscription numbers but we could make an educated guess on the numbers by holding a census. Every faction leader does it within faction, then comes and in a new thread posts the number of active members they have. If every faction does it we will get a rough idea of the numbers per server. Granted those not in factions won't be counted but lets be honest some subs will be counted twice or more cause they have characters in more than one faction so it will even out.

Mega City Census Bureau FTW.

Other than company policy i dont see why SOE wouldnt release a rough figure of Subs.. like they could say Over 2000 under 5000 or something.

Also a player conducted Census would be a decent idea.  The problem lie there in that there are a few people with multiple accounts and not eveyone uses DN1.  So obtaining an accurate figure is always going to be hard.  It would however quash speculation if we could manage to obtain some kind of ball park figure.

No, but if you created a census questionaire, supplied it to Virrago, and asked him nicely, he could do a mass mailing to subscribed emails. Something like "Hi, the MxO community would like to know..."

Then you could get information like "how many times a week do you log in", "when was the last time you logged in", "is your sub still active", "are you aware of the recent changes", etc.

Of course, there are things you can't ask, so I'm sure some SOE permission would be in order or some such.

that will give a well not accurate estimate but well its worth a try.I like the idea of moving the character for a sum $, thatll make it easier for all, those who really want to move from the server they are in, could pay to have theyre char transfered, that seems pretty fair to me.

9mm said a while back that any Character transfer for MxO is doubtful. He didn't say why but I think most people assumed that it's to do with a lack of test or spare server. Either that or they don't want deal with any database issues. The last time server transfers were done, I believe, was when MxO had a lot more staff.

well maybe times have changed as you mention that was a while back, this is now.im just saying if its a difficult idea to have a whole server merge.. the next best thing would be a pay character transfer system.

Server migration is actually a lot simplar than you would imagine.. especially if you can virtualise first.

Well in my experience that is.  I doubt very much that game servers would be different from say the servers i maintain.

Bearing in mind he said it in April/May time this year. So unless they have significant hardware changes or have a better understanding of manipulating the Database (assuming that they even look at it with transfers in mind) or they have extra staff on hand then thats still the official word I guess.

Of course all that is assuming that those issues are whats preventing transfers, it may be something completely different entirely.

Also transferring characters is not a decision for the Dev's to make apparently. Rarebit mentioned about a year ago that it was a decision for marketing and bean counters to make. He said he make suggestion to them on this line but alas no indications were given back.

Now of course what's currently happening on Recursion may give them a kick up the arse.

But may I ask, If there was a Character transfer service, what benefit would it bring? Are you wanting to save the server or just get your character moved? What about those players who's slots are already full on another server?

On the flip side, what benefit would there be in transfering a Character on to a server with a lower population? I know I wouldn't transfer over to a suffering server. All I'd do is what I have done, roll a new character over there.

Vuudoo wrote:

Cadsuane wrote:

I think the fairest solution is for some of us Syntaxians to spend more time on Recursion, populating it and helping it grow. 

or they can just come over to syntax and let recursion server die out.

doing this

Vinia wrote:

But may I ask, If there was a Character transfer service, what benefit would it bring? Are you wanting to save the server or just get your character moved? What about those players who's slots are already full on another server?

On the flip side, what benefit would there be in transfering a Character on to a server with a lower population? I know I wouldn't transfer over to a suffering server. All I'd do is what I have done, roll a new character over there.

Now theres the thing.  Transferring one character to another server is only cause a negative reaction on the server you move from.  Logistically thinking, you move X to Y then X is going to end up exactly in the same position Y was in in the first place.  It has no affect on the overall population.

That is unless the possibility of transferring servers brings back a swarm of older, long since forgotten players.

Vinia wrote:

Bearing in mind he said it in April/May time this year. So unless they have significant hardware changes or have a better understanding of manipulating the Database (assuming that they even look at it with transfers in mind) or they have extra staff on hand then thats still the official word I guess.

Of course all that is assuming that those issues are whats preventing transfers, it may be something completely different entirely.

Also transferring characters is not a decision for the Dev's to make apparently. Rarebit mentioned about a year ago that it was a decision for marketing and bean counters to make. He said he make suggestion to them on this line but alas no indications were given back.

Now of course what's currently happening on Recursion may give them a kick up the arse.

But may I ask, If there was a Character transfer service, what benefit would it bring? Are you wanting to save the server or just get your character moved? What about those players who's slots are already full on another server?

On the flip side, what benefit would there be in transfering a Character on to a server with a lower population? I know I wouldn't transfer over to a suffering server. All I'd do is what I have done, roll a new character over there.

I would say save the whole server, but if its that big of an issue and all you hear is negative feedback for example let recursion die etc, then you get to experience each night the death of it , i say transfer the ones who really want to play their 50's in a populated server,if the rest careless well, i for one do and know that a lot of people are willing to.and of course all of the points indicating that it cant be done are assumptions. I think the only way to know is have a clear response from devs.

Jahzel-Jah wrote:

.and of course all of the points indicating that it cant be done are assumptions.

no no .. it is fact.  It CAN be done.

Dont forget there were origionally more than 3 servers for this game!

Criingey wrote:

Server migration is actually a lot simplar than you would imagine.. especially if you can virtualise first.

Well in my experience that is.  I doubt very much that game servers would be different from say the servers i maintain.

I doubt it would be even remotely as simple as a typical server migration. They wouldn't be moving groups of files or entire databases from one machine to another; they'd be moving select chunks of data from within a fragile database into another fragile database. Then updating some sort of master MxO database with new values, and finally propagating that up to the master SOE server (for chat and the like).