Pending Closure of Elendilmir Server

[Leb of the Troop]

The 14 North American servers that are to be closed by the end of the year were announced today, and Elendilmir was one of those selected to close.  In fact, Elendilmir will be the first of the NA servers to have free transfers to one of the four open Surviving Five servers (Arkenstone, Crickhollow, Gladden and Landroval (RE); transfers to the 5th, Brandywine, have been suspended pending performance of the new server hardware, as the current Brandywine population has made play on that server with the current hardware unsatisfactory).  These free transfers should begin about August 24 (3 weeks from today). 

It is possible for the Kin to move as a group, but we do need to consider our options.  I would ask that the Officers get together for a meeting within the next 10 days, and would suggest 8 PM CDT Monday, 8/10/2015 as a potential time for such a meeting.  I would welcome any alternate suggestions on days or times for such a meeting and expect I could adjust my schedule to fit almost any alternate proposed.

I could relocate to any of the four available servers, but both Arkenstone and Landroval would present minor problems for me (a few characters would have to go to another server, but only 2 or 3, so the issues are very minor).  Landroval is an RE (Role-play Encouraged) server, but I have had multiple characters there for over two years, done very little role-play and had no negative encounters with anyone, RPer or other. The rules for Landy are much more lenient that those for the EUs RP servers, and I would say the requirements are pretty minor - some names could cause problems, but not many.  I have characters on all 5 of the Surviving Servers, and would only have serious concerns with moving to Brandywine.  Those would be from crowding considerations (I could only move the majority of my characters from E to Brandy, with at least 14 having to go elsewhere) and the fact that the atmosphere on Brandy is not very good. 

While we have a near-term opportunity to relocate, and there are some benefits to an early move (more likely to be able to retain character names), there is no real time pressure.  Free transfers from the servers being closed will be available indefinitely, and any characters not moved will be retained and can be recovered and relocated to an active server at any time in the future.  Elendilmir has the earliest opportunity for relocation, but there is no requirement that we take advantage of that opportunity.

Please post your thoughts here on a meeting and how you might like to proceed.  I will be happy to respond here of by in-game mail to comments and suggestions.  Thank you for your time.

Durosi, aka Leb of the Troop

[Leb of the Troop]

My initial thoughts (with some seasoning from discussions elsewhere) on the server changes from an Elendilmir perspective:

(1) We can move quickly, so we can have a much better chance to retain our character names.  Many folks have already scouted the Surviving Five servers to see if their names are already 'taken'.  That's great, and it is all that's necessary if (a) your server can move first and (b) does move first, as we can from Elendilmir.  That 'first move' advantage comes from Turbine's name retention policy.  A character on a Target Server (one being moved to) has the right to retain there name against all characters being transferred in as long as it has been 'active' (played) in the last year.  In that case, Sam on Target Server keeps his name as it is, and Sam from Transfer Server becomes Sam-1 and gets a free rename (if he chooses to use it).  But, if Sam on Target Server has not been active in the last year, he becomes Sam-1, gets the free rename option, and Sam from Transfer Server becomes Sam.  This can only happen once.  The first 'active' Sam that transfers into a server with an 'inactive' Sam gets the 'plain' Sam name, and, since he has been active, can not be 'bumped' by a later arrival, regardless of level or time played.  The only bar to Elendilmir characters having 'first replacement status' would be a character of the same name transferring from another 'Surviving Five' server, which should be enabled about a week or perhaps 2 before the Elendilmir outbound transfers.  There may be a few of these SF-to-SF transfers (players wanting to get their characters om the same server, to join friends, to help Turbine test, whatever) but not that many.

(2) We can not move to Brandywine.  I have had characters on Brandywine for several years, and a fairly large group (tens of characters) and am in a mid-sized Kin there.  Brandy has some 'issues' with their community (all servers do), but the Ignore List can help with those.  More important, Brandy currently has bad lag issues, and not just in PvP.  New servers are expected to resolve those lag issues, and I hope they will, but we will not know for a time yet - IMO, there is a risk there.  If the new hardware does resolve the Brandy issues, it should have a very active PvP environment (especially if you read Russian - there have been a lot of players from the now-closed Russian servers who relocated to Brandywine, and many like to PvP).  I do not PvP, so I have little personal interest in moving to Brandy.  If the hardware does resolve the lag, Brandy will open to incoming transfers, but we have no idea when that might take place.

(3) All these servers will change as new people move in from the closed servers (including us).  Many of those changes will be good (more people to group with, more active Auction House, etc), but some (deteriorating community) could be bad.  Moving early does not lock you in to a server - free moves between the Surviving Five servers will be available, into some point in October, per Turbine.  But moves are not fun.

(4) I have at least some exposure to the each of the Surviving Five servers, and other than Brandy, can recommend any of them.  Some folks are concerned about the Role-playing Encouraged designation for Landroval and possible naming rules conflicts.  Landroval is not a RP server with very strict naming rules (those are in the EU), so IMO some of those concerns are excessive.  I have had about a dozen characters on Landy for 2 years and have had no issues at all, and IMO, Landy has the most friendly overall population of any of the North American servers.  Arkenstone, Gladden and Crickhollow have been fine, too (my experience with Crick & Gladden is very limited and very recent).

Feel free to make comments or ask questions here or via in-game mail.  I am active on a number of servers, and several of them are facing these same issues, with different timing (Vilna and Meneldor are scheduled to be the last two servers to have outgoing transfers enabled), so I'm spread around pretty thinly these days.  I am trying to make Elendilmir more of a priority, but success at that is never a certainty (that Real Life thingie interferes quite a bit), so I may be a day getting back to you.  Be well, good questing and good luck in all things!

Durosi, also known as Leb of the Troop

[Leb of the Troop]

The title says it all.